new, tiger woods controversy, this time over a golf ball collection. a woman who claims she, too, had a relationship with the golfer says enough is enough. find out who's suing who and why. >> is this an appropriate place to have an anti-abortion commercial? >> tim tebow's commercial has everyone talking and some fuming. and why two u.s. zoos had to part ways with two pandas. i hope thursday has been good to you. thank you for being here with

us. i'm christi paul with news & views. james ray is in an arizona court facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. ray surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat ray organized. his attorney calls the deaths a terrible accident and says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. nobody, including mr. ray, could have foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he's devastated by this. but that doesn't make it a crime. we think this is not a crime. it should not have been a criminal charge. we're going to fight it in court. >> as many as 65 people were in the sweat lodge during the ceremony. in all, nearly two dozen of them

fell ill. cnn learned a tentative arrangement for michael jackson's daughter has been set tomorrow -- arraignment, i should say. a source says it will take place at 1:30 p.m. local time. prosecutors haven't announced formal charges but media reports say they plan to charge murray with involuntary manslaughter alleging he gave jackson a powerful an thet tick to led to his death last june. murray said before his death he gave the singer sedatives to help him sleep but insists nothing he gave jackson would have killed him. he said he's ready to surrender to authorities. they are now working on specifics. >> so many people are wondering, how could this happen? somebody should pay. so frankly it wouldn't surprise me if the d.a. wasn't interested in a surrender deal. they really like what's called a perp walk, somebody in

handcuffs. that's what prospective jurors will see. >> murray is in default on a debt for medical equipment and services. a judge in las vegas made the ruling yesterday. now, murray has longstanding personal and professional debts apparently. last summer he almost lost his las vegas country club home to foreclosure. a woman who claims she had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product inspired by his sex scandal. veronica daniels is upset about a set of golf balls bearing images and names of women implicated in the scandal. daniels, a former adult film star says the golf balls could promote violence towards women. she's one of the alleged mistresses depicted on the golf balls and objects to the idea of hitting a woman's face, even the drawing of one w a golf club. >> i have come forward today because i feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it.

as a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it. >> she said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. well, former florida quarterback and heisman trophy winner tim tebow attended the national prayer breakfast this morning. his up coming commercial about abortion has drawn a response from planned parenthood. it won't run during the game because all ads have been sold but planned parenthood asked for the help of sean james and al joiner who won the triple jump in los angeles in the 1984 games. >> there is a lot of talk leading township the super bowl about an a ad focused on sports and family. the ad features a great football player, tim tebow and his mother discussing a difficult medical

decision she made. i respect her decision. >> i want my daughter to live in a world where everybody's decisions are respected. >> we'd air the ad from tebow but it's not released yet. it is scheduled to run during the first quarter of the game. u.s. regulators are looking all the brake problems in the toyota prius. until now it hasn't figured into the recalls but it is now the focus of a formal investigation by the national highway traffic safety administration which received 124 complaints about brake problems including four crashes. toyota recalled more than eight million other cars and trucks worldwide for problems with gas pedals. a toyota owner who crashed into a funeral home blames the accelerator for the accident. her camry is a part of the recall but it happened yesterday

in front of the funeral director who was standing 30 feet from the front door. he described it at scary and unbelievable. >> the furniture was overturned, part of the wall missing. i walked to the front of the lobby and found a car parked inside the building. it was still trying to come into the building. it was trying to accelerate forward, it appeared to me. >> no one inside the funeral home was hurt. the driver was treated for back pain and release from the hospital. you know, they keep her locked up in a little room all day and they won't let her do anything. what else misty croslin has to say from behind bars and the charge against the woman baby sitting haylee cummings when the little girl disappeared.

have you heard about this yet? pope benedict xvi claims the

proposed equality bill would leave the church open to criminal charges if it rejected gay candidates to the priesthood and refused to hire gay employees. the upper house of parliament added an exemptions for priests or ministers but the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charges. so the equality bill is pitting the church against the gay community in england and causing a lot of debate stateside as well. this is one of the your views topics today. richelle carey has been listening in to what you have had to say. what's your take so far in terms of for/against? >> kind of split. but it's passionate. we're talking about people's faith here. the pontiff is maintaining that this law, if it is passed, would restrict religious freedoms. that's what the pope says. we have gotten a lot of passionate responses so far on

facebook. richelle carey hln if you're on facebook. here is a taste of the debate. s dallas spires wrote this. >> let's talk this out. john is calling us from texas. john, you say that the church has religious freedoms and should be immune from certain things. let's talk this out.

>> caller: well, as a gay man, open, and a member of the roman catholic church and active and working for my church, in a relationship of 20 years, religious freedom is the key. you can't take that freedom for the church to be who they are away or you may have one church called the state. it's cut and dried to me. even though i may not like some of the things they say. >> mm-hmm. >> caller: that's when i have to decide is it time for me to take my spiritual journey somewhere else. >> okay. so you're saying that you're comfortable being catholic even understanding there may be things that they are not comfortable with about you. that's the choice you've made? >> caller: well, sure. that's human nature.

it's going to happen in any human institution in history h. >> okay. >> caller: there are going to be conflicts that we, as humans, have to work through on either side or together. my partner and i have always felt that we change the world one person at a time. >> okay. >> caller: change from within is true change and lasting change whereas change from outside doesn't always last. >> all right, john. thank you for your perspective very much. we appreciate that. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. >> we're just getting started and you may even want to respond to john. what do you think? should the catholic church face punishment, maybe prosecution, if it discriminates against candidates for the priesthood or even potential employees if they're gay? do you think? this is a slippery slope. call now, 877-tell-hln or comment on our facebook pages.

chuck, christi and richelle, we all have pages. jump in and get your two cents accounted for. this will be a good one and a personal discussion as well. >> no doubt about it. people are passionate about this and they are firm in their beliefs, too. not a lot of gray area here for some people. thank you very much. do you remember the band men at work? i know you do. an australian judge ruled a big part of the 1980s hit "down under" copied a song written 70 years ago. one music attorney said the band may have to pay millions. the judge said the flute melody in "down under" sounds like an old campfire song called "kukkaburra sits in the old gum tree." who knew? the government says 75% of kids are graduating from high school, but critics say that's hiding big problems. are states cutting corners to

boost the graduation rate? your views on this story in a moment.

following breaking news in the michael jackson investigation, a tentative agreement is setter or -- arraignment is set for tomorrow for jackson's personal doctor, conrad murray. we want to get to ted roll lynns in los angeles who has more for us. tomorrow, we believe, he's being arraigned? >> reporter: yeah. according to a source they are

settling up an arraignment at the lax courthouse near the airport for dr. conrad murray. that said, his legal team hasn't made an official announcement as to a specific plan and the district attorney's office in los angeles still has said nothing about a, charges or, b, a possible surrender. dr. murray is in los angeles along with his h legal team since last friday. the legal team arrived and have been basically waiting for this eventually surrender to authorities to answer to charges in connection to the death of michael jackson. what we can report now is that tentatively friday afternoon they are getting ready for an arraignment here at the lax courthouse in los angeles. >> so, ted, i keep reading they are negotiating a surrender. what does that equate to? maybe a deal being made behind closed doors? what exactly are they negotiating?

>> basically, the legal team for murray really doesn't want to see their client in handcuffs with lapd around him and have that replayed over and over in the media. what they are desperately hoping is that the district attorney's office will play ball with them, allow him to surrender at a courthouse. now, when you say "negotiate" all of the cards are with the district attorney's office on this. what they are discussing, whether or not the legal team is going to be afforded the opportunity to just surrender or if they will have to go to a police station first and have him arrested. that sounds like it's still being worked out. i talked to a member of the legal team this morning. they are frustrated, a bit. they perceive that this might be for a classic l.a. show to parade their client in front of the cameras in handcuffs. they are trying to avoid it and hope they can bring him to this courthouse when they are told to do so. >> all righty.

hey, ted. there's been a lot of development there, so thank you very much for taking the time to get us informed. we appreciate it. >> you bet. >> sure. new charges against haleigh cummings former step-mother. the two new drug charges against misty croslin and ronald cummings were both busted accused of selling prescription drugs to an undercover detective. there is video you see here of croslin's parents visiting her in jail. last night on hln's nancy grace, we get an idea of her life behind bars.

>> haleigh cummings disappeared nearly a year ago. croslin was babysitting her at the time. the bond was increased to $1 million because of the new charges filed yesterday. all righty. we are talking about graduation rates here. i don't know if you have heard about this yet, but talking about high school graduation and specifically we want to ask you a question about this.

want to know -- are schools dumbing down the curriculum? here's why we ask. usa today reports last month pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. the paper says both arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing grades for some classes below 40% and it says in some years, new jersey has graduated nearly 15% of students who failed their exit exams. another 24 states don't use end-of-course or graduation exams at all. so we're hoping you can weigh in on this for us. are there flaws, do you think, in the system, or are we requiring less from kids to graduate? call 877-it witell-hln. e-mail us, text us at hlntv or facebook us. we'd love for you to get in on the discussion. we can't wait to hear from you.

it's been my opportunity and privilege to interview thousands of people over the years for job openings that i have had either as a business owner or as a manag manager. right now, if you have an opportunity to apply for a job, i want to tell you that although you have a lot of competition, there are some things you've got to make sure you do right so that you can stand out from the rest. one way you don't want to stand out -- and it's always blown my mind through the years -- is how many people turn in a resumé, either electronically or in paper form -- that has misspellings, grammar errors and incomplete sentences. have your resumé thoroughly reviewed. don't rely on spellcheck. in fact, one tip i have, read your resumé backwards. you're more likely to pick up a spelling error. second, research the company you're going to interview first.

it's easy on the web and makes a big difference. i'm clark howard. i have more tips about your job search at cnn.com/clarkhoward.

♪ >> welcome to comcast local edition. i'm donna richardson. and my guest this hour is doug gansler, maryland attorney general. thank you so much for coming in. >> good to be here. thanks. >> we have issues with how we elect our judges, and it's really problematic, so explain to everyone how we can at least address this issue. >> it is problematic. what happens is the governor appoints somebody to be a judge, and then they are on the ball let the very next election, and the problem with that is three-fold.

one is we are polite sizing people that ought not to be politesized. second, and the supreme court just had a case about this last year, which called in to question, the very nature of campaign contributions to judges. the supreme court said in that particular case, the judge had toe recuse himself because he received money from one of the lawyers that was appearing before him. they didn't say where the line is, but it really points out the problem of these people running for judge, and the first people they call -- in fact the only people they can call are the people that know they are the judge, which are the people that appear before them. and the third problem we have is minorities on the bench. we have 24 jurisdictions in maryland. two are ma joerty/minority.

[ technical difficulty. ] >> this problem has a problem, but it's not in that contested election format. >> excellent. moving along the chesapeake bay is under attack from so many different areas. explain the no discharge zone. >> every year i have one sort of priority bill environment, and we passed the last three, and they have all had different impacts. this year we are trying to deal with human waist. so that they dump holding takens in to the water. it's not the big problem, but it does contribute 1% of all of the nitrogen. most boaters have tanks that bring in to the arena, and it goes in to the wastewater treatment system. look, you wouldn't want to be in

the bathtub with 1% of human waste, or be in the pool, so we want to make sure the whole chesapeake bay is a no discharge zone. >> making salvia illegal. >> that's a drug they sell in ocean city and college campuses. it is illegal in all of the states. kids have died from using it. if you type it in on youtube, you will see kids filming each other using it. today it is legal to be sold in maryland to 9-year-old, 8-year-old kids, and they do buy it. so we want to make that illegal for at least for juveniles here in the state of maryland. >> excellent. unfortunately we have run out of time, but thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> if you are interested in what

comcast is doing community, go to on-demand and click go to on-demand and click "get local."

cnn has learned a tentative arraignment has been set for michael jackson's doctor tomorrow. a source familiar with the plaping says it will be at 1:30 p.m. local time. prosecutors haven't released charges formally but they plan to charge him with involuntary manslaughter saying he gave jackson a powerful anesthetic leading to the singer's death in june. he gave the singer an anesthetic and sedatives to let him sleep but the doctor insists nothing he gave jackson would have killed him. murray's lawyers say he's ready to surrender to authorities. now they are just working on

specifics. >> so many people are wondering how could this happen? somebody should pay for this. so i think the d.a. -- frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if the d.a. wasn't interested in a surrender deal but they wanted him arrested. they really like what's called a perp walk, somebody in handcuffs. that's what prospective jurors will see. murray is in default on a $132,000 debt for medical equipment and services. a judge in las vegas made the ruling yesterday. now, murray has longstanding personal and professional debts apparently. last summer he almost lost his las vegas country club home to foreclosure. james ray is in an arizona court facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. ray surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat ray organized last october. his attorney calls the deaths a

terrible accident and says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. nobody, including mr. ray, could have foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he's devastated by this. but that doesn't make it a crime. we think this is not a crime. it should not have been a criminal charge. we're going to fight it in court. >> as many as 65 people were in the sweat lodge during the ceremony. in all, nearly two dozen of them fell ill. well, a woman who claims she, too, had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product inspired by the sex scandal. veronica daniels is upset about golf balls bearing the names and images of women implicated in the scandal. the former adult film star says

the golf balls could promote violence against women. she's one of the alleged misstress misstresses depicted on the golf balls and objects to hitting a woman's face, even the drawing of one, with a golf ball. >> i have come forward today because i feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. as a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it. >> she said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. i want to let you know that tonight on "issues" attorney gloria allred talks about text messages that prove daniels and tiger had a year-long affair. is the latest mistress for real? issues with jane tonight at 7:00 eastern. u.s. safety regulators are taking a close look at reports of braking problems in the

toyota prius. until now it hasn't been involved in the recalls but it is now the focus of a national investigation by the national highway traffic safety administration. it's received 124 complaints about brake problems including four that involved crashes. toyota has recalled more than eight million other cars and trucks worldwide for problems with gas pedals. some of the ireporters are talking about about the recall, too. both drive toyotas but they have different takes on how the company has handled the problem thus far. >> luckily for us, our cars have not been called up for recall, but it's frustrating. i do believe that toyota knew it was going on. you can't be at the top of the game for so long, for so many years and not know when your equipment is faulty. i believe they could have acted faster especially when you hear 9-1-1 calls of families who died in these accidents.

they should have acted sooner. i'm happy they are acting now. it's almost like they are acting because they got caught. >> having problems right now and then i get the recall taken care of and as soon as the toyotas are fixed they will have all the legions of fans back. i still think the american manufacturer still has a long ways to go to catch up to the japanese. >> thank you to both of you and all our ireporters for sharing thoughts about the toyota recall. to join the conversation, we'd love to hear from you. if you want to send pictures or videos from your part of the world go to ireport and click on the "upload now" link. the government says 75% of kids are graduating from high school, but critics say that's hiding big problems. are states cutting corners to boost the graduation rate? your views on this story in a moment.

we're getting new information on actress brittany murphy's sudden death. the coroner's office said it was cause bid pneumonia. drug intoxication was also a factor. murphy appeared in films like "clueless" and "8 mile." she died in december at just 32. we'll give you more details throughout the day. here's a story we want you to chime in on. we're talking about high school education, specifically we want to know are schools dumbing down their curriculum? here's why we ask. usa today reported last month pennsylvania dropped

comprehensive exams thousands of students were failing. the paper says arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing grades for some classes below 40% and it says in some years, new jersey has graduated nearly 15% of students who failed their exit exams. another 24 states don't use end-of-course or graduation exams at all. so richelle carey has your views on this. i don't know about you, but i have heard from at least one or two teachers on the subject, too, which is interesting. >> we want people like that to chime in. they certainly know. they are on the front lines to know what the problems may be and the solutions aren't necessarily black and white. there is a lot of of gray there. testing isn't the be all and end all of everything. are there flaws in the system? are we requiring less from kids for them to graduate? are we really dumbing down academic standards? if so, how do students compete internationally? i have a comment i want to share from the facebook page.

>> let's talk about this. dana is calling from kansas. you say your son's school recently, you say, did begin to relax academic standards. what brought that on? >> caller: i have no idea. i just understood that they changed the grading system. when i asked why, i was told because the students in other towns that had a lower grading system were the ones who were getting the scholarships. that's just what i was told, but they have definitely -- are dumbing down our grading system. >> well, that actually -- you beat me to the punch. i was going to ask how you feel about that, but when you say "dumbing down" it's clear how you feel. you think it's troubling?

>> caller: oh, i definitely think it's troubling. >> does it have to be if you're including more kids does t it have to be troubling? >> caller: well, i think so. i think that those children that work so much harder for them grades and are taking homework home every night and trying to only get better in their grades, they're fighting a losing battle when the kids 20 miles away don't have to do that but they will be assured the scholarship when the time comes even though they are not as smart as the other kids. >> i hear your point, dana. thank you for sharing with us. >> caller: you bet. >> let's get a comment from jim.

>> all right, christi, what's on your page? >> chris says no test can be fair to all. it's impossible. some people are good at tests and some aren't, regardless of skill or knowledge level. i have also had a couple people saying, you know what, this starts at home with the parents just taking time with their kids. >> exactly. the education that a parent can give should dpcomplement teachi from a test. school is only one part of the equation. are there flaws in the system, especially when it comes to testing? are we requiring less from kids to graduate? is the pool getting so much bigger that it doesn't really have the quality that it used to? call us now at 877-it will-hln. e-mail us at cnn.com/hln or text the word "views" and your comments and name to hlntv.

you can also comment on my facebook page to join in the discussion. we'll keep airing your comments throughout the day. i remember when i was in school -- i'm going to date myself. to get an a, it had to be a 93. for most kids now it's a 90. >> yeah. it's changing. no doubt about it. all righty. thank you so much, richelle. planned parenthood has a response to tim te bow's up coming super bowl ad about abortion. we'll tell you what it is and get your views on the ad as well.

well, former florida quarterback and heisman and heisman trophy winner tim tebow attended the national prayer breakfast this morning. his up coming commercial about abortion has drawn a response from planned parenthood. it won't run during the game because all ads have been sold but planned parenthood asked for the help of sean james and al joiner who won the triple jump in los angeles in the 1984 games. >> there is a lot of talk leading up to the super bowl about an ad focused on sports

and family. the ad features a great football player, tim tebow and his mother discussing a difficult medical decision she made for her family. i respect and honor her decision. >> i want my daughter to live in a world where everybody's decisions are respected. >> we'd air the ad from tebow in response to this, but it hasn't been released yet. it is scheduled to run during the first quarter of the game. so should the tebow anti-abortion commercial air during the super bowl? a lot of people are talking about it. hln's joe carter hit the streets in miami to find out what they are saying about the controversy specifically, because you're in the thick of it all. >> reporter: yeah. a lot of people are talking about the match-up between the saints and colts, but they are also talking about a commercial they have never seen, just heard about in the media. the tim tebow anti-abortion commercial. we hit the streets to ask whether folks thought the super bowl was an appropriate time and place to run such a controversial ad. i'm joe carter and we are stepping out of the newsroom and

onto the street to get your views. tim tebow and his mother pam are set to air a commercial during the super bowl. it's an anti-abortion commercial. is this an appropriate place to have an anti-abortion commercial? >> yes. >> why? >> think about how many people are watching the super bowl. that's the audience you need to reach. different people, different backgrounds, different experiences and to get a message like that when you're not prepared for it could sit in. how many people are going to watch a show with that theme? >> reporter: is this an appropriate time and place to air a commercial that's -- >> is good with me. >> reporter: why is it good with you? >> i ithink it's a good message to get out. >> it's a family event. i don't think that's the time and place to put out your religious views or how you feel. >> we all have different choices and that's okay, as long as you're not inflicting your own personal ideas. you should change this, you're wrong for this, no.

but at least give us the information and let us choose. >> there is free speech. i think free speech should happen anywhere at any time, even during the super bowl. >> now, most people we spoke with said they don't even watch the super bowl for the game itself. they would rather watch for the commercials and they would rather see more humorous light-hearted ads. so nobody's seen the commercial yet. we don't know how it will play out, but i guess on monday morning we'll see how the public reacts. >> yeah. i'm betting there will be follow up on this one. we lump the commercials together to see which garnered the most reaction. this may be it. thank you so much, joe. have a good time down there. >> reporter: you bet. thanks. pope benedict xvi claims the proposed equality bill would leave the church open to criminal charges if it rejected gay candidates to the priesthood

and refused to hire gay employees. the upper house of parliament added an exemptions for priests or ministers but the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charges. we want to know what you think about this. should the catholic church face punishment, even prosecution, if it discriminates against potential employees if they are gay? give us a call at 877-tell-hln, text the word views, your comments and names to hlntv. standard text rates apply or reach us on facebook. i want to get you some information we're just getting into the newsroom about a massive search going on right now for this 4-year-old georgia boy. obviously this is one of the planes looking for him. authorities say cran guevara was

abducted from a trailer park this morning. this is his picture. take a good look at it. they say he was taken by two men wearing ski masks seen driving a white chevy suburban. christian was last seen wearing pajamas. he's three feet tall, 30 pounds and has long curly brown hair. an amber alert has been issued. police are asking anyone with information to please call 9-1-1. should find out today whether she'll be allowed to stay in the u.s. the decision will be handed down by a federal immigration judge. she's been in the united states illegally for years apparently. she's the half-sister of the president's late father and she applied for political asylum in 2002 noting violence in his native kenya. her asylum request was turned down in 2004 now. president obama hasn't spoken out publicly about the case, but

the white house says the president believes the case should run its ordinary course. the new senator from massachusetts will be sworn in this afternoon. scott brown, of course, initially said he'd wait until the votes were certified from last month's special election before taking office, but now he wants to be seated immediately. majority leader harry reid is granting his demanding. brown says he wants to participate in some upcoming votes, though he didn't specify which ones. he'll become the 41st senate republican, ending the filibuster-proof majority democrats have held for the past year. two giant american-born pandas, look at them, making their way to china as we cheek. 3-year-old mei lan joined 4-year-old tai shan and they're boarding a plane bound for shina. tai shais shan is the first to grow up in the space's capital. apparently the keep her

locked up in a room all day. what else she has to say behind wars and new charges against the woman baby-sitting hey lee cummings when the little girl disappeared. 

welcome back. we're following breaking news in the michael jackson investigation. a tentative arraignment has been set for tomorrow for jackson's personal doctor, conrad murray. ted rowlands joins us live with the latest. >> reporter: chuck, according to a source familiar with the planning, there has been a tentative arraignment set here at the los angeles county courthouse for 1:30 p.m. local time on friday afternoon. now, dr. murray has been in los angeles since friday of last week awaiting a turnover, surrender, but there has been a negotiation back and forth, according to his legal team.

in fact his legal team issued a statement today saying that they are currently negotiating the specifics of this tentative handover. still we haven't heard anything from the los angeles district attorney's office. they have not filed any charges, they have not issued a criminal complaint yet against dr. murray but we do expect that that will come as early as today, most likely tomorrow morning, and then that there will be this surrender, details to come. but a surrender and then a court appearance for dr. murray here at this courthouse friday afternoon at 1:30. at that time we'll find out specifically what charges he faces. this, of course, is the culmination of a six-month plus investigation following the death of michael jackson and it now appears as though dr. murray will be charged and will make his first court appearance to those charges at this courthouse on friday afternoon. >> what is there to negotiate? what is at play here? why don't they just arrest him? >> reporter: what's to negotiate from murray's side is trying to

avoid that shot of the los angeles police department handcuffing him and transporting him because that will be an enduring image used over and over in the media and nobody wants their client to appear that way when you're talking about a trial upcoming. so what they're trying to negotiate, if you will, is a surrender at the courthouse where he pulls up, walks in, is processed and walks out. whether or not they're going to be able to accomplish that remains to be seen. of course there are a lot of egos at play here. the los angeles police department worked tirelessly on this investigation. they'll want some sort of credit. this is los angeles, let's face it. this is a celebrity trial. the celebrity is the victim here, michael jackson, but there's a lot of interest in this. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. but that's the negotiation that's going on. >> and he could be arraigned on the spot and just walk out with bond having been set theoretically, at least. ted rowlands, thank you very much. appreciate the update. we're getting new

information about actress britney murphy's sudden death. the los angeles county coroner said her death was caused by pneumonia but that drug intoxication was also a factor. murphy, who appeared in such films as "eight mile" and "clueless" died in december at 32. we'll bring you more as we get it throughout the day. self-help author james ray is in an arizona court today facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. he surrendered yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during the sweat lodge ceremony that he presided over in october. his attorney called the deaths a terrible accident. he says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. nobody, including mr. ray, could have possibly foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he's devastated by this.

but that doesn't make it a crime and we think this is not a crime, it should not have been a criminal charge and we're going to fight it in court. >> as many as 65 people were in the sweat lodge during the ceremony in arizona. all told nearly two dozen fell ill. the attorney general of new york is accusing bank of america of fraud. andrew como's office unleashed civil action over the bank's dealings with merrill lynch in 2008. civil charges were even filed against the former ceo, ken lewis, as well as the baj's former chief financial officer, joe price. the lawsuit says the bank fudged some numbers over its merger with merrill lynch, including understating merrill's losses to win shareholder backing for the deal. when it went through the bank got $20 billion in federal money to help absorb some of the staggering losses. a spokesperson for b of a called the claims totally without merit. u.s. safety regulators are taking a close look at reports of braking problems in the toyota prius.

the hybrid prius. until now it was not figured into the massive recalls of toyota vehicles but the prius is the focus of a formal investigation by the national highway traffic safety administration. that agency received 124 complaints about prius brake problems, including four involving crashes. toyota has recalled more than eight million other cars and trucks worldwide for problems with gas pedals. one safety analyst claims the company hasn't really addressed that problem yet. >> so i think unequivocally that these recalls simply do not get to the core of the problems that toyota has. these are completely computer-guided systems and we all know that electronics fail. they do fail and they will fail. the problem with toyota is they haven't built enough fail-safe devices into their cars to ensure that drivers get control of the vehicle when a failure happens. >> toyota is supplying its dealers with a new part to prevent runaway acceleration on the recalled cars and trucks. a toyota owner who crashed her

car into a funeral home blames her accelerator for the mishap. this happened yesterday right in front of the funeral director who was standing about 30 feet from the front door. he describes the whole thing as scary and unbelievable. >> the furniture was overturned and part of the wall was missing. so i walked up to the front of the lobby and found a car parked inside the building. it was still trying to come into the building. i mean i don't -- it was trying to accelerate forward, it appeared to me. >> nobody inside the funeral home was hurt. the driver was treated for back pain and released from the hospital. a woman who claims she had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product inspired by his sex scandal. veronica daniels is upset about the set of golf balls bearing images and names of women implicated in the scandal. she says the golf balls could promote violence toward women. she's one of the alleged mistresses depicted.

she objects to the idea of hitting a woman's face, even drawing a woman's face on a golf ball and striking it with a golf club. >> i've come forward today because i feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. as a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it. >> she said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. should churches be held to the same discrimination laws as any other entity when it comes to hiring clergy? what the pope has to say about a proposed law under debate by lawmakers in great britain. and your views on the topic.

pope benedict xvi is urging british catholics to speak out against a proposed anti-discrimination law in their homeland. the equality law, which he says would leave the church open to criminal charges if it, the

church, rejected gay candidates for the priesthood and if it refused to hire gay employees. the upper house of the parliament has added an exemption for priests and ministers, but both the catholic and anglican churches said the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charges. >> so the battle lines are drawn. as you can imagine the equality bill is pitting the church against the gay community in england and causing a lot of debate state side too. it's one of our your views topics and richelle carey is here with more of what you're saying. >> chuck, i would say right now this is probably leaning towards more people saying they see this as a matter of religious freedom and the church should be able to practice what they preach. the pontiff says this is about religious freedom. we have been getting a lot of passionate responses on my facebook page. we picked one for you. benjamin wrote. this the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community in my

opinion is seeking equal rights and recognition from governments, not churches. i personally think it is wrong for any organization to discriminate, but we cannot tell a church who they should and should not accept. we would be no better than they. now let's talk about this. lori is calling us from oklahoma. lori, you say that the catholic church should not go as far as to be prosecuted. explain your position. >> caller: absolutely not. i mean the whole basis for believing in god is the foundation of what's written in the bible. and the question that was posed to me was what if someone is really committed and they are gay, and i responded with this. if you really are committed and called by god to be a minister, then my question would be how committed are you? because god says in his word that homosexuality is a sin. therefore, you would have to acknowledge or deny his authority. i don't think anyone should be

singled out and be given a right because of their sexual preference. to me that's ridiculous. i think we live in a free country, and i think with that freedom, god gives us a choice to choose to do right or to choose to do wrong. >> so are you saying that you can't be gay and be -- you're saying that in your opinion you shouldn't be able to be gay and be a priest? >> caller: absolutely not. how can you say you were a priest or a minister if you're not willing to surrender to the absolute authority of god. >> clearly, that's something i can't answer that. would be between that person and god but you're saying basically there should be a separation between church and state and you think that a church should be able to make those decisions, right? >>. >> caller: absolutely. absolutely. >> lori, thank you for the phone call. connie is calling us from missouri. connie, where do you stand on this? >> caller: well, i think secular laws aren't always a right or better or moral for our people and the secular world and media sometimes make christian people feel bad when we physically stand up for god and god is the perfect love so he's who we

follow. in addition to what the lady just said, pope benedict loves people, all people, whether they are gay or not. but in the bible if you follow god's law and god's law of true love, then the practice of being gay is wrong for all christians. look at the results of stds over the last 30 years. >> connie, besides making this a judgment on homosexuality or not, i guess what you're saying is you think that a church should be able to make its own rules about its morality and not have a government step in about that, correct? >> caller: well, yes. but i think all government leaders, there are always going to be some intersections with god's law and i think that it's good to church leaders speak to god's people and guide them and that's what the church leaders are doing. just to say god bless america, we believe in god, that's not enough. we must stand up for what is

right. >> connie, thank you for you phone call. i appreciate it. we want you to weigh in and tell us what do you think. should the catholic church possibly ever face punishment, possibly face prosecution if it discriminates against priesthood candidates or other potential employees if they're gay? call us with what you think about this. this is a very passionate topic. 1-877-tell-hln or e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. this is a spicy topic, chuck, isn't it. >> it is. and one viewer said priests are celibate so their sexual orientation shouldn't even be a factor. >> and i went to catholic schools and that's what we were taught. for most folks looking for a job, the main idea get hired. what makes a company a great place to work? "fortune" magazine out with its best 100 companies to work for. stephanie elam checks out one. see if you can guess what it is. >> reporter: this business wants everyone to take it outside. where can employees ride like

the wind in the middle of the day? we'll tell you after the break.

what company lets employees take a bike ride during the work

day? the corporate headquarters of rei. the outdoor equipment retailer offers its workers paid sabbaticals after 15 years. it also has health care coverage for part-time employees. workers can test out new products and apply for grants to get equipment from the company for a personal sports challenge. rei is number 14 on "fortune" magazine's list of the 100 best companies to work for. one of the great things about the spectacle of the super bowl is that it gives us the chance to learn about some of the players you probably never have heard of. we're talking about one particular defensive back for the colts and joe carter is in south florida to talk about is it jamie silva, is that right? >> reporter: yeah, chuck, it's jamie silva and he also plays special teams for the colts. only in the nfl two years and he's definitely not a very known player, but he does have an interesting back story. he calls it cash for trash. what he does is basically he collects junk, chuck. he likes to collect junk and

still it. now, it was his primary source of income during his days at boston college, and he said he netted about $25,000 from collecting this junk. he said he collects aluminum cans, meltses, old bikes, couches, and he'd sell it on ebay and craigslist to help pay for spring breaks, gas, meals. the hobby starred as a little kid when his grandpa taught him how to turn trash into cash. >> my grandpa has the eye for it. drives down the road, seize something out of the corner of his eye, pick it up and it developed to a money-making thing during college and paid for spring breaks and stuff. >> if he told you that it's in the past, don't believe it. he still does it and he's still going to do it. >> you know, i've eased off of it during the season but once the season ends, you know, if i see something, i'm not going to pass it up. >> he still goes through the

garbage inside the locker room. every time guys put something in the dumpster, he'll be looking in and trying to pick up something he wants. >> i think if i was making 20 million, i would still, i would still do that just because i know how easy it is to, you know, flip something and it's also fun. >> reporter: now the team hotel is located right next to ft. lauderdale beach and we asked jamie if he packed his metal detector and he said, you know, i almost, almost packed it, chuck, but i've got a lot more to focus on than collecting junk. he's got a super bowl to play on sunday. >> that's a great story. thanks, joe carter in miami. appreciate it. a massive search is underway for a 4-year-old georgia boy. take a good look. an amber alert is issued. christian guevera was abducted by two men with ski masks who were seen driving a white chevrolet suburban. christian was last seen wearing pajamas. he's three feet tall, weighs

about 30 pounds, brown eyes, brown hair, described as shaggy and kind of long. an amber alert has been issued. police want anybody with information to call 911. are schools dumbing down their curriculum? today's usa today report says pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. the paper says both arkansas as well as ohio and other states set passing grades for some classes below 40% and in some years new jersey graduated 15% of students that failed exit exams. we'd love your thoughts on this. are we dumbing down everything? are there flaws in the system or are we requiring less from our kids to graduate? where's this headed? how do we remedy it? call us toll-free 877-tell-hln. cnn.com/hln or text views plus your comments and name to hlntv. we've got facebook pages too.

mine's chuck roberts hln. search for that and join the discussion. the movement of conservative activists better known as the tea party begins its first national convention today but there is a split in the ranks. sarah palin is to be the keynote speaker on saturday. critics say the $549 ticket price alienates people at the core of the grassroots effort. the sold-out event will build alliances can that force changes in both major parties. two giant american-born pandas are making their way to china. 3-year-old mei lan flew from atlanta joining 4-year-old tai shan in d.c. they'll become part of a new breeding program. tai shan is the first cub to grow up in the nation's capital. the other cub was born at the zoo in atlant. there they go. to make sure the transition is easier, they trained tai shan with hand signals so he wouldn't

be confused with his new handler speaking chinese instead of english. they keep her locked up in a little room all day, they won't let her do anything. what else misty croslin had to say behind bars and the new charges against the woman who was baby-sitting haleigh cummings when she disappeared. 'o

breaking news in the michael jackson case. jackson's personal physician, dr. conrad murray, is negotiating right now with prosecutors on plans to surrender to authorities and face charges related to jackson's death. that's the word from his lawyer, so now it's a completely confirmed event. a source familiar with the planning tells our sister network cnn the doctor's arraignment is to take place around 1:30 local time. prosecutors haven't announced any formal charges, but media reports and a lot of them say that they do plan to charge him with involuntary manslaughter alleging that he gave michael jackson a powerful anesthetic,

including propofol, that led to his death in june. he said he gave the singer an anesthetic and other sedatives to help him sleep. the doctor insists he did nothing wrong and gave him nothing that might have killed him. new information on britney murphy's sudden death. the coroner said it was caused by pneumonia but anemia and prescription drugs also played a role. that death was ruled an accident. murphy who appeared in "eight mile" and "clueless" died in december. he was 32. we'll bring you more information about the story as it develops today. self-help author james ray is in an arizona court today facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. she surrendered yesterday to police at his lawyer's office. three people died at a retreat ray organized in october. his attorney calls the deaths a terrible accident. he says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident.

nobody, including mr. ray, could have possibly foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he's devastated by this. that doesn't make it a crime and we think this is not a crime, it should not have been a criminal charge, and we're going to fight knit court. >> as many as 65 people were in the sweat lodge during the ceremony. all told, two dozen of them fell ill. u.s. safety regulators are taking a close look at reports of braking problems on the popular toyota prius. until now the hybrid has never figured into massive recalls of toyota vehicles, but the prius is the focus of a formal investigation by the national highway traffic safety administration. it's received 124 complaints about prius brake problems, including four involving crashes. toyota has recalled more than eight million other cars and trucks worldwide for those gas pedal problems. and in the same vein, a lot

of ireporters are speaking out about the massive recall. listen to these guys. both drive toyotas but have very different takes on how the company has handled the problem. >> luckily for us our cars have not been called up for recall, but it's very frustrating because i do believe that toyota knew what was going on. you can't be at the top of the game for so long, for so many years and not know when your equipment is faulty. so i believe they could have acted faster, especially when you hear those 911 calls of families who died in these types of accident. they should have acted a lot sooner. i'm happy that they're acting now, but it's almost like they're acting because they got caught. >> i know that toyota is having its problems right now, but they're going to get that recall taken care of and as soon as those toyotas are fixed, they're going to have all their legions of fans back. i still think the american manufacturer still has a long ways to go to catch up to the

japanese. >> all right, thanks to our ireporters, couple of different perspectives there on the recall. if you'd like to join the conversation or you've got pictures or video, go to ireport.com and click on the "up load now" link. the attorney general of new york, andrew cuomo is accusing bank of america of fraud. his office unleashed civil action over the bank's dealings with merrill lynch in late 2008. civil charges were even filed against the former ceo ken lewis as well as the former chief financial officer, joe price. the lawsuit claims the bank fudged numbers over its merger with merrill lynch, including understating merrill's losses to win shareholder approval of the deal. when it went through, the bank got $20 billion of federal money to accept absorb merrill's losses. a spokesman for b of a called the claims totally without merit. the movement of conservative activists known as the tea party begins its first national convention today. sarah palin will be the keynote

speaker on saturday. but the ticket price alien ats people at the core of the grassroots movement. the sold-out event will build alliances that can force changes in both major parties. a woman who claims she had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product inspired by the sex scandal. veronica siwik-daniels is upset about a set of golf balls bearing the image and names of women implicated in the scandal. she's a former adult film star who said the golf balls could promote violence towards women. she objects to the notion of hitting a woman's face, even a drawing of one, with a golf club. >> i've come forward today because i feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. as a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it.

>> she said she and woods were intimate for about a year. should churches be held to the same discrimination laws as other entity when it comes to hiring clergy? what the pope has to say about a proposed law under debate by lawmakers in britain.

pope benedict xvi is urging british catholics to speak out against a proposed anti-discrimination law in their homeland claiming the proposed equality bill would leave the church open to criminal charges if it rejected gay candidates to the priesthood and if it refused to hire gay employees. the upper house of parliament has added an exemption for priests or ministers but both the catholic and anglican

churches said the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charges. we've been asking your thoughts on. this should the catholic church face punishment or prosecution if it discriminates against candidates if they're gay? here's the drill. e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. call toll-free 877-tell-hln. next to hlntv. standard text rates apply. hurricane katrina destroyed nearly 130,000 jobs in new orleans. companies just crumbled and business owners fled the city. but a new orleans native named matt wisdom decided to stay behind and rebuild. today his business has never been stronger and he's helping new orleans reboot. tom foreman from our sister network cnn has the story. >> reporter: what made you decide to stay? >> we just decided we can't be away from it. this is the time, either come and make it work or leave and find a new life. >> reporter: where are we now? >> we are in the headquarters

office in new orleans. >> reporter: but matt's fledgling company, turbo squid, which sells 3-d computer models for commercials, movies, even here on cnn, faced the same problem hundreds of others did. the town's communications, transportation, banking and even basic civil services were in shambles. no one business or even hundreds of them could do anything about all of these difficulties they faced, so they got creative and they got coordinated. and a man in here knows exactly how it happened. >> this storm could have destroyed this whole place. what it really did it gave us a chance at intense self examination. >> reporter: that's michael with greater new orleans, inc., an economic development group. since the storm he points out aggressive efforts to improve schools, provide tax incentives for industry and a fresh business recruiting campaign have helped keep new orleans unemployment rate to less than half that of many other cities.

in addition, ambitious young businesses like turbo squid are being grouped into buildings specially refurbished and made available for them at special rates, to encourage interaction, sharing of information, even markets. the result? >> for every one professional that we lost because of the storm two younger professionals have moved in. what you are seeing is one of the great comeback stories of our generation. >> reporter: at turbo squid, matt expand esales into the global market and used the city's reputation as an art center to draw talent to his firm. what have you learned here that would help other communities as they try to get through this economic hard time. >> some of it is to do what you're good at. it's to focus on doing one thing or very few things incredibly well and building the best team of people around you. >> reporter: it has worked. matt's staff of 35 is twice as big as it was before the storm, and the company is now the

largest online vendor in the world of 3-d. not bad for a local boy who just wanted to build up his battered home and help others do the same.

i'm jane velez-mitchell and here's my issue. horror stories coming out of haiti. people are dying in the streets and there are claims they're not getting the help they need because of bureaucratic red tape. life-saving goods are actually stacking up around the country while people reportedly starve to death. this is outrageous. i can understand physical roadblocks, rubble, fallen buildings, that i get. what i don't get is when the roadblocks are set up by the bureaucrats. this has shades of katrina. critics are claiming some rescue organizations to be flexible. rescue workers on the ground say they're witnessing this bureaucratic disorganization. we can launch space shuttles to the moon, shouldn't we be able

to bring aid to a disaster in haiti? i'm jane velez-mitchell and that's my issue. >> find out what else jane has on her mind. don't miss issues with jane velez-mitchell every week night at 7:00 eastern right here. are schools dumbing down their curriculum. usa today reports it's come to that. pennsylvania last month dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. the paper adds both arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing grades for some classes below 40%. and it says in some years new jersey graduated about 15% of students who had failed their exams at the exit -- or exit exams. 24 don't use end of course or graduation exams at all. so are we completely devaluing a diploma? richelle carey is here with your views on this. >> it kind of does come down to that. i think you summed that up really well. are there flaws in the system?

are we requiring less of kids to graduate? really what started all of this? are we just dumbing things down? we want to talk about this. we've gotten a lot of responses. some people say that it's about the fact that we focus too much on testing. we got this comment on my facebook page. this is what she broke it down to. she said it's a shame teachers get crap for actually teaching rather than coaching how to pass these ridiculous state tests. it's timing to give education back to qualified teachers. take it back to the basics. of course the other side would say you have to have some benchmark, that's where all the testing came from. others say the pendulum has shifted too far, that it's all about the test. william is calling us from new jersey. william, you are a college english professor and you are dealing with some of the students that people say are graduating and they're just not at the level they should be. what are you experiencing? >> caller: i'm experiencing students that are coming from high school who don't know how to do basic high school writing and get into college and they're

set up for failure. but the real problem is more chronic than you're addressing in this. what's happening is students are coming to community colleges and state colleges and they're getting part-time faculty, being adjunct faculty. 70% of those colleges are part-time faculty. while the students are paying full-time tuition. the greater story that's destroying american education is the fact that we're not focusing on funding colleges with full-time faculty who can correct some of these problems from high schools. >> well, okay. so you think that the problem can be fixed in college as opposed to stepping back and making sure that the kids are prepared before they get there as opposed to dealing with a staffing issue in college? >> there has to be a point where you check at every level. the thing that happens is you have middle class students coming to community colleges and end up in developmental writing an it's a humiliating

experience. >> let's talk about how they ended up there. they ended up there because of something that happened either in elementary, middle or high school and i'd be interested in your perspective of what went wrong along that process. what do you think happened along the way before they got to college? >> what happened along the way is they were not focusing on the basic skills and the basic skills don't reveal themselves in all this testing. writing skills take a teacher involvement. and especially for the middle class students. when they get to college, the thing that happens is they don't have the teacher there to help them if they are even weak in the skills. >> i wish we had more time to talk about your emphasis, your continued emphasis on the middle class student as opposed to maybe an economically disadvantaged student but we just don't have the time. we have another carl on the line, beverly in pennsylvania. beverly, your husband teaches college math. what's your view on this? >> caller: i just -- having

helping him correct the tests, and these are college tests. >> yeah. >> caller: the kids can't even add and subtract. he's having to teach them his first few days in college business math, his tests are concerned with the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and these are people who have already graduated high school. >> does it worry you? >> caller: yes, because i know that he's teaching them stuff that i learned in junior high. >> all right. we got something going on, something we need to work on. thanks, beverly, for the phone call. we got a facebook comment. bert thinks it's the quantity not the quality of education. he says i think the amount of learning we put on young peep ill is insane. it's way too much pressure for some students. you want to feel like an idiot? go try to complete your 12-year-old's homework. i don't know that i could go

back and do math from that long ago, chuck. >> it's a whole different kind of math too. let me read one from my facebook page. this is from tonya who writes i have the greatest amount of respect for all teachers but if your students are not learning what you're teaching, then you need to figure out a better teaching method and way to help them learn. >> and that's what good teachers do. sometimes they need to regroup and figure out how do i reach the kids. teaching is hard. i couldn't do it. we want to know your thoughts on. this do you think there's some flaws in the system? if so, what do you think they are? are you concerned about what's happening to help kids graduate? let's talk about this. call us at up with-877-tell-hln. the e-mail address is right there on the screen, cnn.com/hln. wetexts, too. text your comment and your name to hlntv. standard text rates apply. you can always comment on our facebook pages, go to richelle carey hln.

if you're trying to find a job right now, did you know there are easy ways to stand out from the pack? yes, there are. hln money expert clark howard with tips to improve your chances of getting that new job. here's clark. >> it has been my opportunity and privilege to interview thousands of people over the years for job openings that i've had, either as a business owner, or as a manager. and right now, if you have an opportunity to apply for a job, i want to tell you that, although you have a lot of competition, there are some things to make sure you do right so that you can stand out from the rest. one way you don't want to stand out and it's always blown my mind through the years is how many people turn in a resume, either electronically or in paper form, that has misspellings, grammatical errors, incomplete sentences. make sure you have your resume thoroughly reviewed, and don't rely on spell-check. in fact, one tip i have, read

your resume backwards. that way you're more likely to pick up a spelling error. second, when you go in for an interview, research the company you're going to interview with first. that's so easy on the web. and makes a big difference. i'm clark howard. i've got more tips for you about your job search at cnn.com/clark howard.

the doctor who was at michael jackson's side when the pop star died is ready to give himself up. the legal twists in the legal tangle surrounding dr. conrad murray. the self-help author at a sweat lodge ceremony goes to court. what criminal charges james ray is facing now. two american stars are going home to a place they've never been. two giant pandas going to china. it is thursday. i hope the day has been good to you. i'm christi paul. thank you for being with us. i want to let you know that cnn has learned michael jackson's doctor is preparing to surrender to police.

a law enforcement source says the preliminary plan calls for dr. conrad murray to be arraigned tomorrow afternoon in los angeles. prosecutors haven't announced any charges but there are media reports that they plan to charge murray with involuntary manslaughter, alleging that a powerful anesthetic he gave the pop star led to his death last june. murray has admitted giving the pop superstar a powerful anesthetic called prop a fal. murray's lawyers say he is ready to surrender to authorities and they are negotiating right now the terms with prosecutors. also, self-help author james ray is an arizona court today facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. ray surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat ray organized last october. his attorney calls the deaths "a terrible accident." he says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

as many as 65 people were in that sweat lodge during the ceremony. in all, nearly two dozen of them fell ill. u.s. safety regulators are taking a close look at reports of breaking problems in the toyota prius. until now, the hybrid hasn't figured into the massive recalls of toyota vehicles, but the prius now the focus of a formal investigation by the national highway traffic organization. they've received complaints about prius brake problems, including four involving crashes. toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars and trucks worldwide with problems with gas pedals. totally different situation there. a woman who claims she had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing this novelty product inspired by his sex scandal. veronica daniel is upset about a set of golf balls in the

scandal. an adult film star said they could promote violence toward women. she's one of the alleged mistresses depicted on the golf ball. but objects to hitting the face of a woman even with a golf club. she said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. for all the talk about the auto industry, not everyone in michigan is looking to cars to make things better. why some think marijuana can be the cash crop to help the state jump-start its economy.

the planet is a classroom for david suzuki. he spent decades on canadian television teaching classes on nature and science and the world around us. now he's teaching a more pressing lesson. the impact of climate change on

our lives. >> in almost every part of this country, it's still legal to kill wolves. i have vivid memories of my first preying mantis, my favorite butterfly, the morning cloak. i've been doing environmental television. i've become more and more of an environmental activist, i guess you should say. but it is really about my children and grandchildren and the kind of world they'll grow up in. it created a break-through in physics. i did my first series of eight programs in 1962. for a local channel in canada. and i felt that television was such a powerful medium, that i wanted to educate people. a shroud of mystery envelopes bogs. even today, we know shamefully little about them. we do know the ancients prized the healing powers of peat. >> i think if i have any ability, it's an ability to take

science that's very, very serious, and difficult, and make it understandable to the public. so you have to be able to translate it in a way the public gets it. i'm standing in one of the richest communities of organisms on the planet. the amazon rain forest to me was one of the most memorable stories we ever did. it was a two-hour special. and at that time, the amazon was being talked about, that we did the show in 1988. and the amazon rain forest was being burned very rapidly, and we called it the lungs of the planet, and this was very important for people around the world. and so i got to actually go right into the depths of the amazon, and live with aboriginal people there for several weeks. and that, i guess, was really a memorable experience, to actually be in an area where i felt these people had lived this way for thousands and thousands of years. we know what we're doing.

and we're doing it for you. but it's not me, it's the stories. there's always exciting stories. you know, you could do a show on the sex life of an oyster, and people would find that fascinating. because we love the world around us. the auto industry has yet to show a lot of signs of hope, right? now some people in michigan think an illegal drug may be their best shot to revive the economy. cnn money.com's poppy harlow checks it out. >> this is a strain i call vietnam 1969. >> reporter: the weed in travis williams' living room isn't getting him high. or arrested. as a registered caregiver, it's a job, in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country. >> it should be a pretty lucrative industry. not street money lucrative, but enough to make a living. >> we've got a whole bunch of tops here that look the same.

>> reporter: it's here at med grow can i bass college where he's learned how to make a buck. he sees the legalization of medical marijuana as the quick fix detroit needs. >> as far as new industries, this is it. for right now. >> medical marijuana. what about green technology or -- >> that's coming. that's coming. but that's going to take some years. for right now, when you've got to pay the mortgage, you can't wait a couple years. you have to move right now. >> reporter: when michigan voters put their stamp of approval on legislation legalizing medical marijuana in 2008, rick tenant saw dollar signs. >> because of the economic climate in michigan, we're particularly poised for growth. >> reporter: so in september, tenant founded med grow, the first medical marijuana trade school in michigan. unlike most businesses here, his

is booming. many have graduated from the course which has been sold out for the last few months. >> it's a new frontier. i'm excited to see this for the state. they need help, as much as they can get. >> reporter: but this's a clear catch-22 when it comes to what's legal and what's not. registered patients can smoke medical marijuana, but they can't legally buy it. and caregivers can plant it, but they can't buy the seeds to grow it. >> it's like you think the government or the state is playing a joke on you. okay. marijuana is legal. but then they come bust you. >> reporter: the michigan department of community health admits the law is unclear. in a statement it says, "the michigan medical marijuana act has many gray areas that are causing much confusion about marijuana usage. the largest gray area is obtaining the drug. this is a problem that only the state legislature can resolve."

and, you know, christi, according to the michigan department of community health, other than a few state senators putting forth recommendations to put stricter regulations on medical marijuana usage, there really has been no attempt to clarify the clear catch-22 in that law. see more on this at cnn money.com/detroit. >> good to know. poppy, thank you so much. i want to take you to pompano beach right now. look at these pictures. all that smoke there, this is the top story of a florida highrise that's on fire. live pictures for you here. wsvn reporting it's a penthouse apartment, on the 13th floor. we just saw some movement there of some people. but again, this is in pompano beach. wsvn also reporting police say they can see someone on a balcony waiting for help, or could at one time. there are the firefighters there, you see them there in the right-hand part of your screen. we understand the fire has also spread to the other side of the

building. this is also due to -- coming to us from wsvn there in miami. this is happening in pompano beach, right off north ocean boulevard we're told. it is the penthouse of a building. obviously security officials there. not moving too quickly. they seem to be out of harm's way. but you can see the smoke there. we're going to keep our eyes on this for you. we understand they -- the fire department needs secondary hoses here because the primary hoses will not reach that height. if you can believe it. again, this is a penthouse on the 14th floor of this apartment build. we had heard reports that somebody was waving for help on the balcony. but we can see that the firefighters there on the right-hand side -- well, on both boxes here on your screen, have now -- you can see that the firefighters are there. but again, we're told the fire has spread to the other side of the building as well. so we're going to keep our eyes on this for you. it's at grenada house is the

name of this apartment complex. an ocean-front condo there. again, on north ocean boulevard at 201 north ocean boulevard pr wsvn. the firefighters try to make their way into apartment, trying to make sure they can contain it, as it seems to be moving quickly through that top building. we'll keep our eyes on this for you. the man accused of plowing into a nevada casino has been arrested now. the 70-year-old man was charged with reckless driving. police say he crashed into the casino yesterday morning, leaving two people dead and at least seven others hurt. that man reportedly told police he had fainted. the controversy from mel gibson's interview with a chicago station appears to be growing. you remember he ended the interview with a choice word, let's say. the newest fallout from "showbiz tonight's" a.j. hammer.

we're going to take you back to pompano beach, florida, where a huge fire is burning at an ocean-front condo. a penthouse apartment. some. damage you can see that is left. it's a penthouse apartment. fire and rescue teams are on the scene. reporting that police say they saw someone on a balcony waving for help. we've seen firefighters there.

hopefully they've gotten to that person. we'll bring you more info when we get it. mel gibson is getting more heat over his behavior during some recent tv interviews. "showbiz tonight's" a.j. hammer is in new york. you showed us this whole thing yesterday. has it gotten to the point reporters -- i'm learning somebody's afraid to talk to him at this point. >> reporters, and i'm talking around the world, are on edge because of mel gibson. we showed you how mel got frustrated with the reporter's line of questioning and at the end of the interview he used a certain expletive apparently directed at the reporter. let's watch how that went down on wgn in chicago. >> do you think that the public will perceive you any differently after all that's been in the news about you? >> that's almost four years ago, dude. i mean, i've moved on. i guess you haven't. i've done all the necessary mea culpas. so -- let's move on, dude.

come on. >> thanks a lot for joining us, mel. take care. >> bye-bye. [ bleep ]. >> well, mel's bad behavior has now gone global. he was just interviewed in france. they asked mel what they were in for. watch what happened here. >> you see there, christi, not just here, but around the world that people are worried about mel.

i've got to tell you, i think he's setting himself up for more image trouble for not getting the short fuse in check. >> he's admitting it, and trying to laugh it off a little bit. if i remember, though, it was a different excuse yesterday. >> yeah. well, of course, he used that expletive that we thought was apparently towards that reporter. then he came back saying, oh, no, my publicist was making faces at me while i was doing that interview. i have yet to talk to anybody who is buying that excuse. now he owns up to having a short fuse. i don't really know if that's really the case. or if it's sort of a defacto admission of guilt. in either case, i think mel needs to really get this in check or it's going to spiral out of control. coming up tonight on "showbiz tonight" i'll actually be speaking with the reporter that he originally offended last week. we'll get his take on the whole thing. plus, we'll have more on tiger woods. what's going on with tiger. a new wave of outrage at 11:00

p.m. eastern and pacific on hln. we'll see you then. >> a.j., thank you. pope benedict xvi is urging catholics to speak out against a law. he proclaims the equality bill would leave the church open to charges re jesting candidates to the priesthood and refusing to hire gay employees. they've added an exemption to priesthood ministers. but they say the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charges. so as you can imagine, the equality bill and the pope's comments against it, pitting the church against the gay community in england, that's causing a lot of debate. even here stateside. richelle, what are people saying about it? >> they're saying a lot. we're talking about people's religion. there's a lot going on here. let's get right to it. the pontiff says this law, if it

passes, he interprets it as a restriction of religious free doms. let's take a call, reverend dr. alec branson is on the line. he is a buddhist minister calling us from washington state. what's your take on this? >> caller: thank you for taking my call, miss carey. my take on this is, this is not a matter of religious discrimination, it is a matter of ethical and sociological discrimination. unfortunately, when persons call in, and i respect their individual views, too often we have representation of people from one branch of fundamental form of christianity, the simple fact of the matter is, with many of my colleagues, unitarian, universalists, we could keep on going, and i won't bore you with tears with that, all of these have very, very pro-gay stances,

including the unitarian universalists association which officially approves and for many years has endorsed same-sex marriage. now, that is one point. on the other side, when we're talking about especially the roman catholic church, discrimination hasn't just been dealt with gays. to this day -- >> alec, just so we don't run out of time, i'm going to have to put you on the spot. do you think the catholic church should be able to adhere to what their church policy is, even if it doesn't coincide with what the law is? >> caller: i believe that the roman catholic or any other church should be able to adhere to a number of different qualifying characteristics for whom they wish to ordain, but not those whom they wish to employ as employees. >> we want to get to facebook comments now. here's some right now that we

have pulled for you. suzie wrote this. a job is a job. maybe they should not ask. we want to know what you think. should the catholic church face punishment, even prosecution if it discriminates against potential employees. call us at 1-877-tell-hln.

a highrise fire at an ocean-front condo in pompano beach, florida, has just been contained. it's a penthouse apartment on the 13th floor. here's video from earlier before they had contained the fire. according to wsvn, it spread to the other side of the building, which is also on the 13th floor obviously. just that floor of the building. we do not have word of injuries but we'll keep you posted. the doctor who administered drugs to michael jackson just before the pop star died could be under arrest by this time tomorrow. ted rolands joins us from los angeles right now. ted, what are the lawyers for dr. conrad murray doing at this

moment? >> reporter: well, they say, according to a statement issued earlier today, that they're negotiating the surrender of dr. conrad murray when and if charges are filed in this case. it's really murky as to what exactly they're trying to negotiate. we do know after talking to members of his legal team, that really their goal here is to avoid at all costs, that shot of murray in handcuffs being led away. and the fear there is that it will be replayed so many times. this is obviously a high-profile case and they just don't want that as an enduring image. they're negotiating a surrender here at this courthouse here where preparations made for an arraignment. whether or not murray will be brought here by police officers or by his legal team, i think is what they are "negotiating." obviously after more than six months of investigations after michael jackson's death, it appears as though the district attorney's office here in los angeles county is ready to move forward and charge dr. murray in

some form. we'll find out more details when the charge is filed. charge murray for michael jackson's death. right now, the last-minute negotiations back and forth. i can tell you this, i talked to a member of the legal team, murray's legal team, they're a bit frustrated because they feel as though the police want to get in on this, and be shown on television, and show murray in handcuffs to sort of brag, if you will, maybe that's the wrong term, but to be a part of this scenario, rather than have just a straight surrender. so a lot of behind-the-scenes things going on. bottom line, we'll know more about the charges at all tomorrow at least by 1:30 when he is tentatively arraigned. >> it seems like we've been talking about this behind-gor negotiations for the last couple of hours here. possibility that maybe they're also negotiating some sort of plea deal? >> reporter: i highly doubt that at this juncture. as this moves forward and the discovery goes back and forth, clearly that might be on the table. but i would highly doubt they come out with any sort of a plea

teal. it seems as though, talking to people who are familiar with the negotiations, and members of murray's legal team, that negotiations wouldn't be on the table, given what they perceive as a lack of information, murray's team, at this point. so i would say that might come down the road. at this point, they're simply trying to get their client in without handcuffs on and i think there's some pushback coming from authorities. we'll see what transpires. >> thank you so much, ted, for keeping us posted. >> reporter: you bet. u.s. safety regulators are taking a close look at reports of braking problems in the toyota prius. until now, the hybrid hasn't figured into this mess of recall of toyota vehicles. but the prius is the focus of an investigation by the highway traffic safety administration. they've received 124 complaints about brake problems, including four involving crashes. toyota has recalled more than 8 million other cars and trucks for problems with the gas

pedals. the new senator from massachusetts will be sworn in this afternoon. scott brown initially said he would wait until the votes were certified from last month's special election before taking office. but now he wants to be seated immediately. majority leader harry reid is granting his demand. brown says he wants to participate in some upcoming votes, though he didn't specify which ones. he will become the 41st senator. andrew cuomo's office released civil action over the deal with merrill lirchl. they were filed against b of a's former ceo and joe price. the lawsuit says the bank fudged some numbers over its merger with merrill lynch, including understating merrill's losses in order to secure shareholder backing for the deal. when it went through, the bank also got $20 billion in federal

money to help absorb some of merrill's losses. a spokesperson for b of a calls it totally without merit. new information regarding brittany murphy's sudden death. the coroner's office said the death was called by pneumonia. but anemia and prescription drugs also played a role. it was ruled accidental. murphy who appeared in "clueless" and "eight mile" died in december. she was just 32 years old. the los angeles county coroner has ruled casey johnson died as a result of complications related to diabetes. johnson's body was found in her home january 4th. the 30-year-old socialite garnered a reputation for partying. in december she announced engagement. a massive search going on right now for this 4-year-old georgia boy. please take a moment and look at

his picture. authorities say christian guevera was abducted from a trailer park this morning. authorities saying he was taken by two men wearing ski masks who were seen driving a white chevrolet suburban. christian was last seen wearing pajamas. he's 3 feet tall, weighs just 30 pounds, has brown eyes, brown hair. a little curly. an amber alert has been issued for him. police are asking anyone with any information, please, to call 911. frightening situation there. have you ever wondered why some babies are born premature while others go full term? researchers may have found a clue as to what may make some women prone to pre-term labor. here's more in today's "health minute." >> reporter: new research out from the national institutes of helts finds genetics may play a role in a woman's risk for babies born 37 weeks. about half a million preemies

are born in the u.s. each year. doctors don't fully understand why some women carry their babies full term, about 40 weeks and others don't. researchers found that the immune systems of some women are more sensitive to infections and inflammation. these immune system chemicals can bring on contractions and pre-term labor. many experts thinks it brings researchers closer to identifying women at risk for pre-term labor. more research is needed to develop screening tests for patients. other possible causes of premature birth include fetal stress, pleading and stretching of the uterus caused by multiple fetuses. another woman is going with her story. you know why she's doing it? because of some golf balls.

right now, in port-au-prince, ten americans are appearing before a haitian judge accused of trying to take children out of the u.s.-quake ravaged country illegally. they belong to a religious organization and saying they were trying to rescue children orphaned by the quake. authorities say most of those children were not actually orphans and the group didn't get legal permission for them to leave haiti. a judge is deciding if the americans should remain in jail until they're tried for child trafficking or could decide to send some or all of the americans home. self-help author james ray

is in arizona court today facing manslaughter charges. he's being held on $5 million bond. he surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat ray organized last october. his attorney calls the deaths a terrible accident and says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. as many as 65 people were in that sweat lodge during the sher money, though, and in all nearly two dozen of them fell ill. pretty frightening moments for people onboard this small plane in south florida. it's now part of an official coast guard investigation. the plane was experiencing some problems as it prepared for landing, apparently the nose landing gear had failed to lock into place. after making several passes over the runway it did land safely with its nose down. so you're going to see it here as it just kind of glides. but because of that nose gear problem, it's going to hit right

there into the concrete. so neither the pilot nor his passenger, thankfully, was hurt. but again, an investigation is under way. the movement of conservative activists known as the pea party be gibbs its first national convention today. sarah palin will be the keynote speaker saturday. critics say the $549 ticket price alien eights people at the core of this grass roots effort. supporters say the sold-out event in nashville will build alliances that can force change in both major parties. a woman who claims she had an affair with golf star tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product that's been inspired by his sex scandal. veronica daniels is upset about a set of golf balls bearing the images and names of women implicated in this scandal. daniels, a former adult film star said the golf bars could promote violence toward women. she's one of the alleged mistresses depicted on those golf balls and objects to the idea of hitting a woman's face,

even a drawing one, with a golf club. daniels said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. a member of the famous wallenda family. he crossed a wire 600 feet long, suspended 200 feet above the ground connecting two downtown buildings and did it without a net or any other safety equipment. the government says 75% of kids are graduating from high school. critics say that percentage is hiding some big problems. are states cutting corners to boost the graduation rate?

this week we've been trying to help two heart broken parents find out what happened to their missing son. please take a moment and look at your screen here as we show you 4-year-old mark bookal. he disappeared december 14th in new york city. the only adult with him at the time, his mother's boyfriend says he left the boy alone and

returned to find him gone and an open door. i had a chance to speak with mark's dad and asked him what he thinks of the boyfriend's story. and also to tell us a little bit about his son. >> he liked to play, play a little game. he would say, knock, knock, and i'm spolsed to say who's there. and he would tell me what to say. and i would say it, you know? he's not going to go to a stranger. he's scared of people. you know? he's not a people person. he's mostly stick to his mother and father. you know, he's not the type to do wandering off. >> that was what i wanted to ask you. because as i understand it, he was found missing when the door was open. is he a curious kid? he's not a fearless kid? >> he's not a curious kid. i don't buy that story. he's not a curious kid. >> he wouldn't walk off on his own? >> no, he wouldn't. he would never to that.

>> corey bird, the boyfriend in this case, is the focus of the investigation. though he's only thus far been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and refused to take a polygraph test. mark's parents have each taken a polygraph test. they both passed. but for more details on this case, click on www.missingkids.com. if you think you know anything about mark bookal's disappearance, please, call the newburg, new york, police. thank you so much for doing so. we want to get your views on this next story. we're talking about high school education. specifically we want to know, are schools dumbing down their curriculum? here's why we ask. "usa today" reports last month pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams thousands of students were failing. the paper says both arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing grades for some classes below 40%. and it says in some years, new

jersey has graduated nearly 15% of students who failed their exit exams. another 24 states don't use end-of-course or graduation exams at all. >> christi, we're getting a really good perspective. i mean, we're hearing from teachers, we're going to hear from a student who said i know i was passed and shouldn't have been. we're reaching out to see if there are flaws in the system. are we requiring less from our students to graduate? let's share a facebook comment with you. kelly said this. i have taught on the college level and our students are rarely prepared for the riggers of college, do not have basic written, communications skills. we have dumbed down our system just to appear to be fair to all students when in fact we are being fair to none. that's one perspective. let's take some calls. now, dina is calling from princeton, west virginia. dina, you think that we are

dumbing down our standards. how so? because that's a broad statement. how so? >> caller: well, we've basically, since no child left behind, and other educational ideas that have been floating around the last several years, have tried to individualize the educational system. we want every child to succeed. every child should be given the chance to have a good education. the problem is, every child does not have the same outcome. there's no way that you can have a standard basis, and at the same time have a success story for everyone. we've kind of, instead of trying to have standards and then try to help people be successful in their own ways, we've gone the other way around. and we've made our standards cater to those who are not being successful. and this is causing a problem for people who are engaged in their education, or for people -- for teachers. they feel like they're teaching to this test, to the standards, and not actually helping kids be succe successful.

>> isn't there something to be said for there has to be benchmarks to see where the kids are, where they need to be? >> caller: absolutely. i feel like we really need to get back to what is a high school diploma going to mean and have those standards. >> dina, thank you for the conversation. appreciate it. jay is calling from cross plains, wisconsin. jay, you called and told our producers that you failed a class before. you owned up to it. you failed a class and the teacher passed you anyway. what in the world happened? >> caller: like i said, i know i wasn't a stellar student. and i know i failed a couple of classes. and, you know, three fs doesn't make a d. i know for a fact that they passed me just to get me out of the class. and to get me graduated from the high school. they never offered me any chance to make up that offered me a ch to make up that grade or anything like that. >> what class?

>> caller: science. computer programming. >> why did you fail, jay? >> caller: i was a bad student and i skipped a lot of classes. >> i don't mean to sound like your mom. we all been there where we wished we had done something different. so you expected to fail and didn't get an "f" for the class. >> caller: i expected to make up the course in the summertime but that never happened. >> wow. >> caller: so -- >> so it is happening. >> caller: i was told by a lot of people the school shouldn't be doing that. obviously, i didn't pass the class. i'm looking at my report card. >> thanks, jay. i hope you went back and learn ed what you should have learned in the class. want to see children succeed, it

starts with the parents at home. maybe you do see flaws in the system. we want to know what flaws do you see in the system. maybe we are looking in the wrong places. call us 1-877-tell-hln. e-mail address is cnn.com/hln. send a text or go to our facebook pages.

[ music ] >> welcome to comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson, and my guest this hour is leslie prewitt, director of external operations, opportunity builders. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell the viewers about opportunity builders incorporated and what exactly the organization does? >> absolutely. we have been around for 47. we were started in 1962. we provokessa provide training d

rehabilitation. >> what are the services you offer your clients? >> there are 170 that stay in our warehouse that do packaging then we have 180 individuals that go out and work for local employer. >> you have the employers who are helping out and also having the contracts to give those, like you said, in the warehouse employment possibilities. >> absolutely. we're always looking to new contracts to fulfill, inside of our warehouse and then outside we're always looking for new employers to hire our adults. >> now all of this, i know it takes funding, and you've got a fund-raiser coming up. >> right. >> so tell us about your mardi gras. >> well, hence the beads so you know why i'm wearing beads. we are very proud of our 12th

annual mardi gras. we have live music, we have a casino, an auction, great food, beer, wine, and ice cream and it's a great night and a lot of fun. >> it does sound like a lot of fun. how much are the tickets to be able to enjoy all this fun? >> the tickets are $50 each. >> very, very reasonable, and it sounds like you're getting a huge value with the opportunity of the casinos and the great food and the auctions and the dancing. >> uh-huh. >> so with this, because i know it takes a lot of dollars in order to run the program, how do you plan to use the proceeds? >> the proceeds will help with our operating expenses, especially with the downturn in the economy and budget cuts, we will be using it to assist the organization.

>> leslie, i do have a question. how do your clients become a part of opportunity builders? >> they are funded for the developmental disability administration. if someone is interested, if a family is interested in having family members participate in an opportunity with opportunity builders, they would call and then we would direct them to our director of employment that would start them through the process of the program. >> once they're in the program, do you also provide training before the clients either work in the warehouse or go out to work with your partner businesses? >> absolutely. in the warehouse, we do have an instructor to assist individuals with each contract, and as far as the individuals who go out into the community and work, we do training for those individuals. they have a one on one coach so we'll make sure the individual knows how to do the job before we have them working on their

own. >> in going back to mardi gras, do you need any volunteers to help out, because that's a big undertaking you have so many different activities going on? >> absolutely. we can always use volunteers, but we can always use the ticket sales, and that's really a big emphasis for us, ticket sales and sponsorships. >> exactly. so there are sponsorship opportunities available? >> absolutely. >> how can they reach you if they want to buy tickets or become a sponsor? they can call our office. >> perfect. well, leslie, thanks so much for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> our guest this hour is less by prior to director of external operations at opportunity builders. for comcast local edition, i'm

donna richardson. [ music ]

e i appreciate you coming out in short notice and in the community of abermarle county, the city of charlottesville, this is very important as to why we called this press conference.

first of all, i want to thank the local community for the importance it is to this investigation. we will solve this tragic event involving morgan and it's really going to be important that we listen to people who know the area, the location where morgan harrington's body was found. you know, prior to finding morgan's body we have a lot of unknowns. we still have a lot of unknowns but based on the hard work of the investigators, based on the fact that we have a location where morgan was and recovered, that is very significant.

as a matter of fact, it is the most significant part of this investigation. before i go into some more detail why that's important i do want to recognize a couple things. first off, there have been a lot of people working on this case. a lot of resources have been used. and i want to recall that you'll know that the university of virginia, the virginia state police, the federal bureau of investigation, abermarle county police and charlottesville city police have all worked together on this case since october 19th when we all came together. i also want to recap just for the locals that morgan became missing on october 17th from john paul jones arena in charlottesville. we recovered the remains on

january 26th, 2010. as you can see, there was some time, but that's important for the people that live in this community to think about that time frame. what we really want to focus on for this press conversation is location of the body. as i said before and you'll hear me mention it several times over the next few minutes, location, location, location is very, very important. it's important to the police, but it needs to be important to the community. especially those in the community that live in the area of anchorage farm, that live in the area of north garden. i hope that this message that i'm going to convey will give you the opportunity to think about things that happened in that particular community.

i'm hoping that i do a good enough job that i make you want to call the police to give us information so we understand that community better. i generally don't use notes but because this is so important i want to make sure i articulate exactly what i want the community to know about why the location is important. so i hope you'll bear with me when i step back from the microphone for a minute and refer to the notes. i can't overemphasize how significant this is to the investigation. along with the resources we have used there is no secret. we have criminal profilers in the department of state police, we have utilized the criminal profilers, but we have also allowed the opportunity for

those criminal profilers to collaborate with other criminal profilers both within the common wente and outside of the common wente. they are a tool, they are an investigative tool. they help us along. we are fortunate in our agency to have a couple who are certified in the behaviors. so that's good for the investigation, but it is even better we take the opportunity to reach out to those folks who also have those skills and make sure we are trying to go in the right direction with this case. the reason i point that out is because -- >> that is lieutenant joe raider, virginia state police. we are not getting a lot of information about the disappearance of morgan harrington seen last at a charlottesville concert and her body found in abermarle county. no cause of death has been

announced, no time of death has been announced although on tuesday the medical examiner ruled her death was, indeed, a homicide. we are about to hear a little more information. hopefully we can turn it around and give it to you shortly about what is so important about the location. again, apparently no break in the case but just an update on the death the homicide of the virginia tech coed morgan harrington. breaking news in the michael jackson case. dr. conrad murray is negotiating right now with prosecutors and plans to surrender to authorities to face charges related to jackson's death. that is the word from his lawyer. a source familiar with the planning tells cnn the doctor's arraignment will take place at 1:30 pacific time tomorrow. prosecutors have not announced what charges will be formally filed.

media alleges involuntary manslaughter, that he gave michael jackson propofol that led to his death last june. he gave the singer an anesthetic and other sedatives to help him sleep but insists nothing he gave jackson would have killed him. self-help author james ray pleaded not guilty need an arizona court. ray surrendered to police yesterday. three people died during the sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat ray organized in october. his attorney calls the deaths a terrible accident and says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. no one, including mr. ray, could have possibly foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he is devastated by this. that doesn't make it a crime.

we think this is not a crime. it should not have been a criminal charge and we are going to fight it in court. >> 56 people were in the sweat lodge during the ceremony and all told nearly two dozen fell ill. the latest news from port-au-prince ten americans arrested in haiti will be tried on kidnapping charges. the haitian attorney tells the ap they are charged with criminal association. cnn has not confirmed that aspect of this report. the americans are all members of an idaho based church group and claimed they were trying to rescue 33 children orphaned by the earthquake. haitian officials say most of the kids were not orphans and the americans tried to remove them illegally. each kidnapping count carries a maximum of 15 years in prison. a woman who claims she had an affair with tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product.

veronica daniels is upset about a set of golf balls bearing the image and the name of the women. she says the golf balls could promote violence toward women. she objects to the notion of hitting a woman's face, even a drawing of juan with a golf club. >> i've come forward today because i feel it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. as a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it. >> daniels says she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. should churches be held to the same discrimination laws when it comes to hiring? what the pope has to say about a proposed law under debate in the uk and what your views on the issue are.

pope benedict xvi urging british catholics to speak out against the anti-discrimination law in their homeland. he hinks it might leave the church open to letting gay priests. both the catholic and anglican churches say the measure would require them to hire gay employees or face criminal charge. you can imagine the equality bill and the pope's comments are pitting the church against the gay community across england. it is one of our "your views" topics. richelle carey is gauging it. >> the pope says that if the law passes he feels it would

resfrikt religious freedoms. let's take some calls. the first caller is gregory who is calling from richmond, virginia. gregory, you say that people who work for the church, in your opinion, should -- is that gregory hanging up? is that gregory? >> caller: i'm here. >> sorry. i heard a dial tone. you think people who work for the church should already follow the church's teachings. >> caller: yes, i do. >> let's talk about this. >> caller: i'm one of those who believe if you are part of an organization, it should have people within it that believe in the organization's primary purpose. the primary purpose according to what i understand about churches is to follow the by laws or the rules or whatever has been set up that coincides with their rule book.

now i think if you are open to some degree to anything if you are part of an organization, then the organization won't uphold itself. >> can you repeat that last part, gregory? >> caller: well, if you are open for anything being an organization i think you won't primarily oppose what you were put in place for. say that you say yourself to be a worker in the area of fixing cars and then you decide to open up your gates to anyone saying a person who works on micro scopes. >> are you basically saying the church needs to stand their ground? >> caller: yes. >> okay. i got you. i got you. thank you. let me share some facebook comments.

if you are on facebook search richelle carey hln. sarah wrote i'm agnostic. i get tired of people using religion as an excuse. if i had a business and refused to hire a religious person not like me i would have a lawsuit. ash lee, i cannot understand what a sexual orientation has to do with his or her abilities? why does the church focus on one sin and not another. curtis says i believe church and state remain separate. if the catholic church can discriminate who they want to hire, so be it. you cannot ask a government to tell a religion how to be religious. that is a sample of what we have been getting today. it is still time for you to get in your opinion. should the catholic church face

punishment, prosecution if it discriminates priesthood candidates or potential employees if they are gay. call 1-877-tell-hln. you can send us an e-mail at cnn.com/hln. all right, chuck, back to you. >> all right. that is a pile of stolen purses. a great reminder to never leave valuables in plain sight in your car. police in northern california arrested two suspects who had 100 handbags with credit cards and personal i.d.s. the couple is accused of breaking into parked cars at night. super bowl momentum is beginning. a star you've probably never heard of. it is a great story.

one of the great things about the spectacle of the super bowl is it gives us a chance to learn about players you may have never sheard of if you are not a football fanatic. joe carter tells us about an indianapolis colts man who epitomizes one man's trash is another man's treasure. >> that's right. jamie silva plays special teams for the colts. he collects other people's junk and sells it for cash. he calls it cash for trash. he said during his four years at boston college it was his primary source of income.

in four years he netted about $25,000. if you can imagine a guy out there on the beach with a metal detector, that is him, looking for aluminum cans, precious metals. he found couches and chairs and sells them on craigslist and ebay. he paid for meals and spring breaks in his college days. his grandfather showed him how to turn trash into cash. >> my grandfather has the eye for it. drives down the road, sees something out of the corner of his eye, picked it up. developed into a money making thing during college. paid for spring breaks and stuff. >> if he told you it is in the past, don't believe it. he still does it and he's still going to do it. >> i've eased off of it during the season but once the season ends, if i see something i'm not

going to pass it up. >> he goes through the garbage inside our locker room. if guys put something in the dumpster he looks in trying to pick up something he wants. >> if i was making $20 million i would still do that just because i know how easy it is to flip something and it is also fun. >> reporter: now even on that big nfl salary he told us he still uses his college i.d. when he goes to the movie theater to get a couple bucks off the ticket the team hotel is right next to the beach. we asked him did you bring the metal detector? he said i was tempted but i want to keep my focus on the super bowl this sunday, chuck. >> if you want his autograph you head to the nearest miami thrift store. we are talking about high school education today. specifically we would love to know from you are schools in your views dumbing down their

curriculum? "usa today" had a shocking story reporting pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing grades at below 40%. in some years new jersey has graduated 15% of students who failed their exit exams. 24 states don't use graduation exams at all. are there flaws in this system? are requiring less from our kids to graduate, is a diploma being given away? 1-877-tell-hln. cnn.com/hln. how do we fix this? text hlntv and standard text rates apply. comment on my facebook page. we hope you'll dive into the discussion. new information on brittany murphy's sudden death. the coroner says her death was called by pneumonia, but anemia

and prescription drugs played a role. the death was ruled accidental. she died in december at 32. they keep her locked up in a little room all day and won't let her do anything. what else misty kroslin has to say.

[ music ] >> welcome to comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson, and my guest this hour is leslie prewitt, director of external operations, opportunity builders. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell the viewers about opportunity builders incorporated and what exactly the organization does? >> absolutely. we have been around for 47. we were started in 1962. we provokessa provide training d

rehabilitation. >> what are the services you offer your clients? >> there are 170 that stay in our warehouse that do packaging then we have 180 individuals that go out and work for local employer. >> you have the employers who are helping out and also having the contracts to give those, like you said, in the warehouse employment possibilities. >> absolutely. we're always looking to new contracts to fulfill, inside of our warehouse and then outside we're always looking for new employers to hire our adults. >> now all of this, i know it takes funding, and you've got a fund-raiser coming up. >> right. >> so tell us about your mardi gras. >> well, hence the beads so you know why i'm wearing beads. we are very proud of our 12th

annual mardi gras. we have live music, we have a casino, an auction, great food, beer, wine, and ice cream and it's a great night and a lot of fun. >> it does sound like a lot of fun. how much are the tickets to be able to enjoy all this fun? >> the tickets are $50 each. >> very, very reasonable, and it sounds like you're getting a huge value with the opportunity of the casinos and the great food and the auctions and the dancing. >> uh-huh. >> so with this, because i know it takes a lot of dollars in order to run the program, how do you plan to use the proceeds? >> the proceeds will help with our operating expenses, especially with the downturn in the economy and budget cuts, we will be using it to assist the organization.

>> leslie, i do have a question. how do your clients become a part of opportunity builders? >> they are funded for the developmental disability administration. if someone is interested, if a family is interested in having family members participate in an opportunity with opportunity builders, they would call and then we would direct them to our director of employment that would start them through the process of the program. >> once they're in the program, do you also provide training before the clients either work in the warehouse or go out to work with your partner businesses? >> absolutely. in the warehouse, we do have an instructor to assist individuals with each contract, and as far as the individuals who go out into the community and work, we do training for those individuals. they have a one on one coach so we'll make sure the individual knows how to do the job before we have them working on their

own. >> in going back to mardi gras, do you need any volunteers to help out, because that's a big undertaking you have so many different activities going on? >> absolutely. we can always use volunteers, but we can always use the ticket sales, and that's really a big emphasis for us, ticket sales and sponsorships. >> exactly. so there are sponsorship opportunities available? >> absolutely. >> how can they reach you if they want to buy tickets or become a sponsor? they can call our office. >> perfect. well, leslie, thanks so much for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> our guest this hour is less by prior to director of external operations at opportunity builders. for comcast local edition, i'm

donna richardson. [ music ]

breaking news in the michael jackson case. cnn learned his personal physician dr. conrad murray is making plans with prosecutors to surrender to police probably 24 hours from now. a law enforcement source says the doctor's arraignment is to take place in l.a. tomorrow. prosecutors have not announced any charges. there is widespread speculation the charge will be involuntary manslaughter. they allege the medication he gave to jackson led to his death. murray says he gave him the

propofol and other sedatives to help him sleep and nothing he gave him would have killed him. we are joined by jane velez-mitchell host of "issues." what strikes you about the way this is playing out? >> it is absolutely fascinating. any time you have the words michael and jackson in the same sentence you know it is unpredictable. we don't know what is going to happen. what you said is the way it is being reported. it could change at any moment. that is what i've noticed covering anything michael jackson. i think it is fascinating he is getting this special treatment, negotiations as to how and where he will surrender so he can have the arraignment at a courthouse near the los angeles airport at 1:30 los angeles time, 4:30 new york time. who else gets that kind of consideration? i don't know if we were arrested for anything we would get that kind of consideration, of long

negotiations of how and where you are going to surrender. of course, the point is it seems likely dr. murray wants to avoid a humiliating perp walk where he is handcuff and led through a gauntlet of media crushing and pushing on him. he wants to try to keep his dignity. even if he makes all these negotiations with law enforcement if that will happen. we are hearing reports he is holed up, one report says at a friend's house in santa monica and the paparazzi are on them. even if he makes these great arrangements with law enforcement if the paparazzi knows where he is they will follow him. we will have a media circus tomorrow. that is one thing i will predict. i don't think it will be dignified. i have covered michael jackson for years. wherever i covered there usually was some kind of media circus because of the intensity of feelings when anybody covers michael jackson. >> you're right.

with paparazzi being what they are, there will be a perp walk of sorts at least somewhere. what do you think about the feedback from the jackson family? they are very unhappy about involuntary manslaughter as a charge. >> we haven't heard the official word as to what the charge will be. the speculation is involuntary manslaughter which would involve gross negligence. the jackson family thinks it should be murder. dr. conrad murray has gone on videotape saying and appeared at his church saying i'm innocent. i will be exonerated. he admitted to police and it is in an affidavit that he gave five doses of sed tif over six hours and hit him with the propofol which is a surgical knockout drug. there is the question of the discrepancy over the timeline. why did it take them for so long

to call 911, for the paramedics to arrive? was michael jackson dead before he got to the hospital. why did dr. conrad murray perform cpr on a bed as opposed to what everybody knows who had any experience with cpr it is supposed to be on a hard surface. i can see why the family thinks this is more than gross negligence. apparently prosecutors feel he did not intend to hurt michael jackson. >> it is great to hear your thoughts. you have crystallized a lot of what everybody has been thinking. breaking news out of port-au-prince. ten americans arrested in haiti have been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association. the americans are all members of an idaho-based church group and claimed they were trying to rescue 33 kids orphaned by the earthquake a little over three weeks ago. haitian officials say most of

the children are not orphans. the americans tried to remove them illegally. it could take a judge three months to render a verdict. each kidnapping charge takes a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. james ray pleaded not got three counts of manslaughter. he surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died at a sweat lodge ceremony retreat. his attorney says ray will be cleared. as many as 65 people were in the sweat lodge, nearly two dozen fell ill. a woman claims she had an affair with tiger woods is denouncing a novelty product inspired by the sex scandal. veronica daniels is up set about golf balls bearing the image and name of women in the scandal. she is a former adult film star who says golf balls could

promote violence toward women. she objects to the idea of hitting a woman's face, even a drawing of one with a golf club. >> i've come forward today because i feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it. as the victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands and hitting a ball with my face on it. >> she said she and woods were intimately involved for at least a year. what do you do when your student fails their exam? some schools have decided to throw out the tests. how can america compete if this goes on?

we've been harvesting your views on this story. higher education, actually high school education leading up to higher education. are schools dumbing down their curriculum to give more and more unqualified students a diploma? last month pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams thousands of students were failing. arkansas and ohio set passing grades below 40% n. some years new jersey graduated 15% of students who failed their exams. 24 states don't use end of course or graduation exams at all. we have been asking your views on this. are there flaws in the system? are we requiring less or, in fact, too little? jamie writes other country's kids are excelling in math and

science and we are trying to debunk evolution and rewrite history books. the rest of the world has plooufed on. speaking of new jersey and pennsylvania, bear delaware where becky is on the line. what do you think? >> caller: i think we are dumbing down the education system and doing a great disservice to kids today. my husband and i both graduated from public schools. our daughter is in private school because in delaware they don't even require middle school and above students to spell correctly. that's not longer a requirement. they don't take points off for that. >> do you think it is a funding issue? what do you think the problem is? >> i think they have lowered and lowered the standards. >> yeah. >> caller: it is ludicrous that you are telling students they don't have to know how to spell? some schools aren't bothering to teach cursive writing. i mean, can we possibly set the

standards any lower? >> where does your child want to go to college? >> caller: she's only 11. >> it's way too soon. >> caller: i had a friend's daughter come over and in fifth grade this child could not read the instructions to make broenys out of a box. that was just beyond her capability. we're not doing these kids any great service. i mean, this is why mcdonald's has put pictures on the cash register. >> we can't lower the bar. >> caller: here is the scary thought, these kids are taking care of us when we are old. you are going to trust them to measure medication? >> good points. a few more facebook comments. kelly makes this point, doesn't anybody get it. school is much harder than it used to be. some of this math i've never

seen before. if i were in school now i probably wouldn't pass either. so there is something on the other end. michelle writes lowering the standards makes the problem worse. it is bad enough kids can't tell time unless they are looking at a digital clock or read a map. kids need structure at home and school. >> you have time to weigh in on this. are there systemic flaws or are we requiring less from our kids to graduate. e-mail us about cnn.com/hln. text to hln tv and facebook is up and operating. you can join in. toyota's denying reports that pri us has been added to massive recall list. safety regulators are looking at reports of braking problems. the hybrid is not in the massive recall of toyota vehicles but a focus of a formal investigation

of the national highway traffic administration. they have four braking problems including crashes. a little lag time a second after you hit the brake the car responds. toyota has recalled more than 8 million other cars and trucks with gas pedal problems. one safety analyst says the company hasn't really addressed that problem yet. >> unequivocally these recalls do not get to the core of the problems that toyota has. these are completely computer-guided systems and we all know electronics fail. they do fail and they will fail. the problem with toyota is they haven't built enough fail-safe devices into their cars to ensure drivers get control of a vehicle when a failure happens. >> let's get views from i reporters. they are speaking out about the massive toyota recall. so many people own a toyota.

both of these i reporters drive toyotas. they have different takes on how the company has responded and handled the problem. >> luckily for us our cars have not been called up for recall, but it is very frustrating because i do believe toyota knew what was going on. you can't be at the top of the game for so many years and not known when your equipment is faulty. i believe they could have acted faster. especially when you hear the 911 calls of families who died in these accidents. they should have acted sooner. i'm sheap they are acting but it is almost like they are acting because they got caught. >> toyota is going to get the recall taken care of and as soon as the toyotas are fixed they will have all their legions of fans back and i still think the american manufacture still has a long ways to go to catch up to the japanese. >> just a sample of i reports

weighing in on the toyota recall issue. if you'd like to join the conversation or have pictures or video go to ireport.com and look for the up load now link. the attorney general of new york is slamming bank of america. charges of fraud have been filed by andrew cuomo's office. charges were filed against ken lewis and joe price. the lawsuit says the bank fudged some numbers over its merger with merrill lynch including understated merrill's steep losses to win shareholder backing for the deal. this is late 2008. the bank got $20 billion in federal money to help it absorb merrill's losses. a spokesperson for b of a calls the claims totally without merit. should churches be held to the same as any other entity? what the pope has to say and your views on the issue.

pope benedict xvi is urging british catholic to speak out against a proposed

anti-discrimination law in that homeland. he claims the proposed equality bill will leave the church open to criminal charges if it rejects gay candidates to the priesthood or refuses to hire gay employees. the house of lords has added an exemption for priests and ministers. the catholic church and church of england would require them to hire gay employees or face punishment. we are ask the question should the catholic church face prosecution in the uk over gay discrimination? 1-877-tell-hln. cnn.com/hln. text us views plus your comment and name to hlntv. we'll put your responses on all day. the auto industry has yet to show many signs of hope. we are going to get to the dow in a moment. huge selloff today. don't let me fail to do that. right now we are talking about something else.

some people in michigan think an illegal drug is the best shot to revive the economy. poppy harlow checks it out. >> this is a strain i called vietnam 1969. >> reporter: the weed in travis williams' living room isn't getting him high or arrested. as a registered caregiver, it is a job in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country. >> it should be a pretty lucrative industry, not street money lucrative, but enough to make a living. >> we've got a whole bunch of tops that look the same. >> it is here at med grow can bus college where williams learned a new way to make a buck after his construction business fell as rapidly of the economy. he sees the legalization of medical marijuana the quick fix detroit needs. >> as far as new industries this is it for now. >> this is it. medical marijuana? what about green technology. >> well, that's coming.

that is going to take some years. so for right now when you have to pay the mortgage, you can't wait a couple of years. you have to move right now. >> reporter: when michigan voters put their stamp of approval on legislation legalizing medical marijuana nick tenant saw dollar signs. >> we are particularly poised for growth because of the economy in michigan. people are looking for a new industry. >> reporter: so he founded med grow, the first medical marijuana trade school in michigan, unlike most businesses here, his is booming. since it opened hundreds have graduated from the six-week, $465 course thatmonths. >> it's new frontier and i'm excited to see this for the state. they need help, as much as they can get. >> reporter: but there's a clear catch-22 when it comes to what's legal and what's not. registered patients can smoke medical marijuana, but they can't legally buy it. and caregivers can plant it, but

they can't buy the seeds to grow it. >> it's like you think the government or the state is playing a joke on you. okay, marijuana is legal. but then they come bust you. >> reporter: the michigan department of community health which oversees the program admits the law is unclear. in a statement, it says, "the michigan medical marijuana act has many gray areas that are causing much confusion about marijuana usage. the largest gray area is obtaining the drug. this is a problem that only the state legislature can resolve." >> real quickly, how popular is this in michigan? will this industry have legs? >> it's incredibly popular, chuck. there have been about 15,000 applicants since just april, and, actually, no surprise here, there's a backlog of getting those caregiver and patient cards out because too many applications, too few people to process them. you can follow more at cnnmoney.com. >> great story. thank you so much. let's go quickly to wall

street. a full retreat today. investors fled to the sidelines after a bad report on u.s. unemployment claims heading right to the close. let's pop the number up. 245 on the downside. big, big sell-off today. probably not helped by news about the charges against bank of america. we'll be right back. not long ago, this man had limited mobility.

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call the scooter store today. the doctor who was at michael jackson's side when the pop star died is ready to give himself up. the latest twist in the legal tangle surrounding dr. conrad murray. ten members of an american church group will spend more time in jail in haiti. find out what charges they're facing for trying to take children out of that country. and -- >> is this an appropriate place to have an anti-abortion commercial? >> our own joe carter talks about tim tebow's upcoming super bowl commercial. i'm richelle carey.

thank you for your time. breaking news in the michael jackson case. we're following it by the hour. jackson's personal physician, dr. conrad murray, is negotiating with prosecutors on plans to surrender to authorities to face charges related to michael jackson's death. that word is.coming from his attorney. a source tells our sister network cnn the doctor will be formally charged tomorrow at 1:30 in the afternoon local time. prosecutors have not announced, though, what the charges are. but media reports say they plan to charge murray with involuntary manslaughter. they allege he gave jackson an anesthetic that led to his death last june. murray told police that he did give him an anesthetic and other sedatives that would help him sleep. the doctor insists nothing he gave jackson would have killed him. new information in the death of actress brittany murphy as well. the los angeles correspond nor's

office says the death was caused by pneumonia. but prescription drugs played a role. the death was ruled accidental. murphy who appeared in "clueless" and "eight mile" died in december, 32 years old. james ray pleaded not guilty to three counts of manslaughter in court in arizona today. he's being held on $5 million bond. he surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat that he organized last october. his attorney calls the deathses a terrible accident. he says ray will be cleared of criminal wrongdoing. >> he's devastated. he's been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. nobody, including mr. ray, could have possibly foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident.

he's devastated by this, but that doesn't make it a crime. and we think this is not a crime. it should not have been a criminal charge. we're going to fight it in court. >> as many as 65 people were in that sweat lodge during that ceremony. actually two dozen of them got sick. breaking news coming out of port-au-prince. ten americans arrested in haiti last week will be tried on kidnapping charges, kidnapping of children. they're all charged with criminal association as well. the americans are members of an idaho-based church group. they claim they were trying to rescue 33 children, orphaned by the earthquake three weeks ago. officials say most of the children are not orphans. they say the americans tried to remove the children illegally. the americans have all been taken back to their jail cells. it could take a judge up to three months to deliver a verdict in the case. each of the kidnapping counts carries a maximum of 15 years in

prison. police searching for whoever killed morgan harrington are asking anyone who lives near where her body was found to come forward with anything. anything that may help. harrington's remains were found on a farm in virginia. police said today they are certain whoever left the body there had to be familiar with the area. residents likely saw something, something, that could help lead them to her killer. 20-year-old morgan disappeared outsideede concert the night of october 17th. her remains were identified last month. a winter storm is barreling toward the nation's capital. the national weather service is warning people in the washington area to prepare for another intense snowstorm like the one that buried the area in december. remember that? winter storm warnings extend from the eastern shore of pla r maryland to central new jersey coast and from delaware to west virginia. forecasters say the storm could dump two feet of snow on

southern new jersey by saturday night and a foot to a foot and a half elsewhere. that's a big storm. former florida quarterback and heisman trophy winner tim tebow appeared in washington you th morning. his upyou coming commercial about abortion has drawn a response from planned parenthood. that was released on the internet but it's not going to run during the game because all the ads for the broadcast have been sold. planned parenthood enlisted the help from sean james who played for the vikings and al joyner who won in 1984 the olympics. >> there's a lot of talk about a television ad. it's tim tebow and her mother. i respect and honor mrs. tebow's decision. >> i want my daughter to live in a world where everyone's

decisions are respected. >> we would with air tebow's ad in response, but it has not been released yet. even though we've been talking so much about it. it's set to run during the first quarter of sunday's game. should the tebow anti-abortion commercial air during the super bowl? joe carter is in miami to cover the game. he's asking people about what they think about this controversy. i'm sure you're getting an earful, joe. >> reporter: you know, i actually am. a lot of people have a strong opinion about the topic. nobody's seen the commercial yet, but people still have a strong opinion, strong point of view, based on what we've been telling them. i can tell you that people are upset because cbs is running it, people are upset because the other side is not being run or they didn't allow space for the other side. but when the announcement was first made, i took it to the streets and asked folks if running an ananti-abortion commercial is appropriate during the super bowl. tim tebow and his mother pam are set to air a commercial during

super bowl. an anti-abortion commercial. is this the appropriate place to have a commercial like that? >> yes. >> reporter: why? >> think about how many people are actually watching t ining s bowl. different people, different backgrounds, different experiences. to get a message like that when you're not really prepared for it could sit in versus how many people are going to watch a show with that theme? >> reporter: is this an appropriate place and time to air a commercial -- >> good with me. >> reporter: good with you? >> sure. >> reporter: why is it good with you? >> i think it's a good message to get out. >> it's a family event. i just think that that is not a time or place to be putting out your religious views or how you feel. >> we all have different choices, and that's okay as long as you're not inflicting your own personal ideas, you should change this and you're wrong for this. no. but at least give us the information. give us the information and let us choose. >> there's free speech and i think free speech should han

anywhere at any time even if it's during the super bowl. >> reporter: well, most of the people that i spoke with also said that they don't watch the super bowl for the game itself. they watch it because it's an event and they watch for the commercials. they'd rather see humorous, lighthearted commercials rather than a controversial commercial. most of the people felt it wasn't at time or place. that message continues today. >> it will be interesting to see the reaction once people actually see the commercial and we have the conversation about it after. >> reporter: yeah. i don't think it's going to be as bad as people think. i think tim tebow is a pretty straight-laced guy and i think the commercial will go off pretty harmless. just my opinion. >> joe, thank you. well, should churches be held to the same discrimination laws as any other entity when it comes to hiring? that's something to think about. what the pope has to say about a proposed law under debate by lawmakers in britain and your views on that issue. and it was not a good day on

wall street. i mean, that is an understatement. look at that, the volume very close to falling below 10,000. very close. right there on the edge. we'll check in with alison kosik from the new york stock exchange.

we want to getyour views on this story. we're talking about high school education. specifically, we want to know, are schools dumbing down their education? "usa today" reports that last month pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. the paper says both arkansas and ohio as well as other states set passing group grades for some classes below 40% and it says in some years new hampshire has graduated nearly 15% of students who fail their exit exams. other states don't use send end of course or graduation exams at all. we'll share your views on that story in the next half hour.

right now we want to know what you think about this. pope benedict xvi is urging british catholics to speak out against a proposed anti-discrimination law in their homeland. he claims that proposed equality bill would leave the church open to criminal charges if it rejected gay candidates for the priesthood and if it refused to hire gay employees. the upper house of parliament has added an exemption for priests. but the churches say the bill would require them to high gay employees or face charges. that has stirred up pretty intense debate on my facebook page. we pulled a few comments for you to give you a flavor of the discussion. andy wrote this -- the church is called to be separate from the world's rules and views. the question to ask is what's the church willing to give up for unity? also, which is more important,

that everybody get along or that the church remain holy? will they please humankind or god? the answer to what they should do is obvious. hopefully they will end up doing what they will end up you doing will be the same. jacob says this -- the rcc, roman catholic church, should not be exempt. didn't jesus teach us to be compassionate and treat each other fairly? he's saying he thinks they should have to abide by the equality bill. jennifer said -- so everyone is talking about gay rights. i'm all for them. to each its own. but what about the catholic believers' rights? this is getting out of hand. don't they have better lawsuits to pursue? you can still get in, tell us what you think. should the catholic church face punishment, prosecution if it discriminates against potential employees or priesthood candidates if they're gay? post your comments and we'll continue to read them and share

more. toyota, huge story here, denies its popular hybrids are being recalled now. but they're working with regulators looking into complaints about the 2010 prius now. the latest on toyota's troubles.

the movement of conservative activists known as the tea party begins its first national convention today. sarah palin is the keynote

speaker. that's going to happen saturday. critics say the $549 ticket price is going to alienate people at the core of the grassroots effort. supporters say the sold-out event in nashville will build alliances that can force change in both major parties. the new senator from massachusetts will be sworn in this afternoon. scott brown, the popular kid right now, he just arrived at the capitol. he originally planned to take the oath of office next week. then he demanded to be seated immediately. the state of massachusetts certified his election earlier today and brown resigned from the state legislature. he's scheduled to take his seat within the next hour. brown willing the 41st senate republican ending the filibuster proof majority of the democrats. a man in california is attacked by teenagers. now police are trying to figure out why. jay hernandez has the story. >> reporter: a city worker operating a backhoe was struck

by what he thought were rocks. the worker wearing a bright orange shirt, the man stopped in front of a mini mart, climbed out of the backhoe and was attacked. police say he was knocked to the ground, swarmed and robbed. after the man was beaten, a passerby reported the 40 people from his cell phone. >> they turn away and leave pretty quickly, which actually helped us quite a bit. it's hard to say what would have happened. >> reporter: we froze the video where the worker was left on the ground. the minimart is not far from vallejo high school and they say they're working at the school to identify some of those teens. >> what i can tell you about the citizen's video, it shows clear faces of all the individuals or most of the them that were present. that's going to be necessary to identify those individuals. >> that was jade hernandez from ktvu. that man has a fractured skull, jaw and collarbone, some broken teeth and a reward is being

offered to find the people responsible. let's talk about toyota now. it is denying reports that more than 200,000 of its prius high rids have been recalled in the u.s. and japan. but it says it's cooperating with safety regulators taking a close look at the report of braking problems. the ntsb has received 124 complaints about prius brake problems including 4 that involve crashes. toyota confirmed a software problem. it's using revised software now but hasn't decided what to do with cars with the oldest software. toyota has recall other 8 million cars and trucks worldwide for problems with the gas pedals. one analyst claims the company hasn't really addressed the problem yet. >> i think unequivocally these recalls simply do not get to the core of the problems that toyota

has. these are completely computer-guided systems. we all know that electronics fail. they do and will fail. the problem with toyota is they haven't built enough failsafe devices into the cars to ensure drive drivers get control of the vehicle when a failure happens. toyota is supplying dealers with a new part to prevent runaway acceleration on the reca recalled cars and trucks. the attorney general of new york is accusing bank of america of fraud. andrew cuomo's office unleashed civil action today over the bank's deal with merrill lynch. that was a huge deal. civil charges were filed against b of a's former ceo ken lewis as well as the former chief financial officer, john price. the lawsuit says the bank fudged some numbers over its merger with merrill lynch including understating merrill's losses to when shareholder backing for that deal. when it went through, the bank also got $20 billion in federal money to help it cope with some losses from that acquisition.

a spokesperson for b of a calls the claims totally without merit. the dow continued its declines today on some worse than expected news on the job front. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange with the details of the tumble. it was ugly, alison. >> it really was. the sell-off comes down to jobs. 480,000 people joined the unemployed last week, up 8,000 from the previous week. wall street expected a decline so it came as a big surprise to investors. claims haven't been this high in two months, leaving many to wonder if we're moving in the wrong direction. at the close, the dow dropped 268 points ending at 10,002. the nasdaq and s&p lost 3%. investors are waiting for tomorrow's monthly jobs report. there was hope that the government would report that jobs were added in january, but,

after the weekly report was released this morning, those hopes quickly fizzled. the big fear is that a worsening job market will have a much wider effect possibly leading to lower consumer spending and slower economic growth. tomorrow's government report will provide a better look at the employment picture and the unemployment rate is expected to remain near 10%. richelle, we'll see what tomorrow brings, if we fall below the 10,000 level. >> let's hold on by our fingernails. >> we will. >> thanks, alison. this will make you smile. two giant american-born pandas are making their way to china. we're going to miss them. 3-year-old mei lan flew in from atlanta joining tai shan in d.c., the 4-year-old. there they boarded a plane bound for china. they'll eventually become part of a breeding program. tai shan is the first cub to grow up in the nation' capital and mei lan the first cub born at zoo atlanta. to make sure the transition is

easier, a washington zookeeper trained tai shan with hand signals so he wouldn't be too confused by his handler speaking chinese instead of english. misty croslin is speaking from jail, the woman who was babysitting haleigh cummings when she disappeared. we'll talk to jane very lelz mitchell about that, next.

we continue to follow the breaking news in the michael jackson case. his personal doctor, dr. conrad murray, still negotiating can prosecutors on plans to surrender to face charges related to michael jackson's death. we're getting all that information from his attorney. a source familiar with the planning is telling our sister network cnn that dr. murray will be formally charged tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. local time. prosecutors have not announced exactly what the charges are, but media reports say they plan to charge murray with involuntary manslaughter.

they allege he gave jackson an anesthetic that led to his overdose death. that was last june. murray told police that before jackson's death, yes, he did give him anesthetic and other sedatives to put him to sleep. but dr. murray insists nothing he gave jackson would have killed him. we continue to keep you up to date on that. we've been following breaking news out of port-au-prince as well. ten americans arrested in haiti last week will be tried on charges of kidnapping children. they are also charged with criminal association. the americans are members of an idaho-based church group. they claim they were trying to rescue 33 children orphaned by that earthquake three weeks ago. haitian officials saying most of the children are not orphans. they say the americans tried to remove the kids from the country illegally. the americans have all been taken back to their jail cells. it could take a judge up to three months to deliver a verdict, and the charges do not allow them to post bail.

but u.s. consulate officials are allowed to meet with them in jail. each of the kidnapping counts carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. let's talk about the dow now. you've got to look at this. it fell below 10,000, back and forth, back and forth, before the close of today's trading for the first time since november. the final numbers ended just above 10,000. just barely. today's sell-off all comes down to jobs. fourt 80,000 people joined the unemployment line last week, up 8,000 from the previous week. the new senator from massachusetts is being sworn in this afternoon. we're talking about scott brown. he is at the capitol. he originally planned to take the oath of office next week, then he demanded to be seated immediately. the state of massachusetts certified his election earlier today, and brown resigned from the state legislature. he will be the 41st senate republican, ending the filibuster-proof majority democrats had been holding for

the past year. a pretty intense winter storm is barreling toward the nation's capital. the national weather service is warning people in the washington area to prepare for another storm pretty much like the one that buried the area back in december. winter storm warnings extend from the eastern shore of maryland to the central new jersey coast and from delaware to west virginia. a blizzard warning is up for the atlantic city area. forecasters say the storm could dump two feet of snow on southern new jersey by saturday night and a foot to a foot and a half elsewhere. self-help author james ray pleaded not guilty to three counts of manslaughter in court in arizona today. he's being held on $5 million bond. ray surrendered to police yesterday at his lawyer's office. three people died during a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat that he organized last october. his attorney calls the deaths a terrible accident, and he says

that ray will be cleared of criminal wrong doing. >> he's definite estated e.'s been devastated by this entire incident. this was a tragic accident. nobody, including mr. ray, could have possibly foreseen consequences anything like this. he has thought about nothing else every day since this incident. he's devastated by this. but that doesn't make it a crime, and we think this is not a crime. it should not have been a criminal charge. we're going to fight it in court. >> as many as 65 people were in that sweat lodge during the ceremony, and nearly two dozen of them got sick. an amber alert has been issued for that child right there. he's a 4-year-old boy here in georgia. authorities say the boy was abducted from a trailer park this morning, taken by two men wearing s ining ski masks. they were driving a white suburban. he was last seen wearing his

paja pajamas. he has brown hair, brown eyes. police are asking anyone who knows anything to call 911. let's talk about toyota now. the company is denying reports of 200,000 of their prius hybrids have been recalled. they are cooperating with regulators taking a close look at braking problems in that pretty popular model. the national highway traffic safety administration has received 124 complaints about prius brake problems, including 4 involving crashes. toyota confirmed the software problem affecting braking on some models, some of the 2010 models. it's using revised software but hasn't decided what to do with cars with the older software. toyota has recalled more than 8 million other cars and trucks all around the world because of those gas pedal problems. it is supplying dealers with a

new part to prevent runaway acceleration on the recalled cars and trucks. toyota's safety problems and the way the company is handling them provides lessons for car buyers and others. clark howard runs them down for us. >> it has not been a good week to be toyota or a toyota owner. but one thing i want you to know -- don't panic. you know, when there's this much media coverage, people do overreact. don't park your car. don't be afraid to start it. don't be afraid to drive it. now, the circumstances have been brutally tragic in cases where people have lost their lives because of the sudden acceleration. but, if you look at the huge number of toyotas, very, very few have been subject to a problem. so i think it's fine to drive. i have a toyota. i'm driving it. but there are some steps you should know. number one, if your car does start to accelerate out of control, take both your feet as solid as you can, put them on the brake.

if that doesn't solve it, next, put the car into neutral. you can do these things like that. and then, if that doesn't work, turn the key off. if your car doesn't have a key, you have one with of those electronic thingies, pusher it in and hold it for three seconds. that will for sure solve the problem with your car. now, problems create opportunities. toyota is in the used car market. nobody wants them right now. they have no cred. if you buy a used toyota right now, you'll save thousands, two or three grand even on one a few years old. the other big beneficiary of this? honda. why? because people buy hondas and toyotas. right now they're not going to go to the toyota dealers. they're going to go to honda. you want the real deal, you go buy what nobody loves right now, the toyota. but most people are going to go for the safety and security of buying the honda. last thing -- what's so important to me in this is that toyota provides a

lesson to all of us. when you mess up, fess up. they instead covered up. and look at the consequences to their reputation. >> get more great consumer advice from clark howard every saturday and sunday at noon and 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln news and views. he'll help you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.

i'm a.j. hammer. this is a "showbiz tonight" news break exclusively on hln. this is the buzz. james ar ther ray, the self-help expert seen on oprah and featured in "the secret" faces charges in the deniaths of thre

people. ray attorney says the deaths were an accident and not a criminal act. tiger's new tale. a woman who claims she had an intimate relationship with tiger woods is taking a swing at the entrepreneurs who created a set of golf balls with the faces of tiger's alleged mistresses. gloria allred says the product sends a dangerous message. >> putting a woman's face on a golf ball which a golfer swings at with full force may increase the harm to woman. playing a round of golf with these balls may leave marks resembling bruises on the face of the ball, which may lead to inappropriate jokes about hitting women. pam anderson bombshell. the buxom blonde is reportedly set to join "dancing with the stars." the deal is done, says radaronline. she is thrilled. she has not yet confirmed the report. that is your exclusive news break. be sure to join us 11:00 p.m.

eastern and pacific for "showbiz tonight." we have new information on actress brittany murphy's sudden death. the los angeles county coroner's office says her death was caused by pneumonia, but anemia and prescription drugs also played a role. the death was ruled accidental. murphy who appeared in "clueless" and "eight mile." she died in december, she was just 32. the los angeles county coroner has also ruled that casey johnson died as a result of complications related to diabetes. her body was found january 4th in her home. the 30-year-old had a reputation for partying and she announced her engagement in december. she was the daughter of new york jets owner robert woody johnson. two giant american-born pandas are making their way to china right now. 3-year-old mei lan flew in from

atlanta today to join 4-year-old tai shan in d.c. there they boarded a plane bound for china. they'll eventually become part of a new breeding program. tai shan is the first cub to grow up in the nation's capital and mei lan was the first cub born at zoo atlanta. a kindergarten class in nevada wanted to make sure a national guard member had a birthday he would never forget. terry russell tells us how they did it. >> this is way cute. >> reporter: preparations started early in the kindergarten class here in sparks. their hero would be here in less than an hour. >> he's been gone nine months. he gets to come home to visit his family for 15 days. >> 15! >> reporter: they would write him letters for the last nine months. in turn he would write them back. >> dear benson, hey there. thank you for writing me. >> reporter: he sent scarves and

other items from a country these kids only know from a map. the children made him birthday cards. >> you have a happy birthday. you are special to me. >> a cake and words and hearts. >> reporter: it was a cake complete with army helmet and the kids even dressed up in cam mow to make will feel right at home. >> because he's fighting for our country and he's a good example for america. >> and he walks in and we -- >> reporter: with just minutes left, they receive their final instructions on just what to do when will arrives. >> come on in. >> reporter: and then -- >> surprise! happy birthday! >> thank you, thank you. >> reporter: will didn't just stop by for cake. he talk youed about afghanistan, the people, where they live and what he does. he even answered questions. >> a lot of families out there don't have any running water or

electricity. yes, we are americans and very proud to be one. we can work together as a people to kind of bring a better world. >> reporter: the afternoon went on with cake and a game of pin the star on the soldier. but as far as these kids are concerned, there's only one star in their classroom, will. >> very good. >> fantastic. he'll be headed back to afghanistan in two weeks and expects to finish his mission in two months. than thanks to terri russell and the kids. the government says 75% of kids are graduating from high school. critics say that percentage is hiding some big problems. are states cutting corners to boost the graduation rate?

almost time for "prime news." let's check in with mike so he can tell you what you can expect. they're working on quite a few stories. give us some highlights. >> some of the stories you talked about. the arrest of james ray, facing

three manslaughter charges for the three deaths that happened at the sweat lodge that he had sponsored. we're going to listen to former employee who talked about what did james ray do as this tragedy was with unfolding. it sounded like the guy was oblivious. she says the way the story goes there are bodies lying all over the place and he comes walking out of the lodge looking like a million bucks. the follow-up is, does that lead to the manslaughter charges? his actions as this is unfolding or preparations leading up to? tons of questions. want to hear from you. >> people on my facebook page were with wanting to know more about the scene of what a sweat lodge is. >> we're also going to have somebody who survived this, beverly bunn is her name, what she went through, what she saw. call in, 1-877-call-hln. tiger woods back in the news. one of his alleged mistresses putting herself out there, joslyn james. why are you coming out now, having a press conference? >> jane was wondering that now. >> and the golf balls, the

mistress collection. she's upset about that. >> you said the mistress collection. >> that's what they're called. call in on that if you like. we're also going to hear from misty croslin from jail. >> yeah. >> and her father in the midst of one of these conversations basically, tell the truth, is the undercurrent of all of this. >> he did seem to be alluding to that, mike. he did. >> we'll listen to all of that. one other topic we'll hit on, racy line of clothes for little girls. 8 and 9-year-olds. one of the sponsors, miley cyrus' little sisters, fishnet, lace. tell me what you think. call in. >> so it's true? >> 8 and 9-year-olds. come on whaxt do they wear when they're 12? >> save some of that, mike. thanks. we've been talking about high school education today. the question has been, are we dumbing down the curriculum?

"usa today" reports last month pennsylvania dropped comprehensive exams that thousands of students were failing. now, to be fair, someone at the state they thought the test was flawed. also the paper says arkansas and ohio as well as other state set passing grades for some classes below 40%. and it says in some years new jersey has graduated nearly 15% of students who failed their exit examses. another 24 states don't use end of course or graduation exams at all. so are there flaws in the system, or are we requiring less from our kids to graduate? just a few comments from the discussion going on on facebook. stephanie wrote this -- ever since the no child left behind policy, tests have gotten easier and subjects easier to pass. i think the point of that policy was to help kids more in learning, not dumb down things we teach. got this from melinda, i say

more has to be done to hold these students accountable for themselves and lives. states and schools are so melinda writes this: eric says by lowering the american education standards we prevent our kids from competing with the rest of the world educationally. tests need to meet standards like the one us find in parts of asia and europe, just part of the conversation today. you can jump in on the conversation right now if you still want to, i appreciate the comments. the beginning of the end of the new jersey meadowlands giants stadium coming down. demolition crews will spend four months taking apart the home of the new york giants, the football giants and the jets, j.e.t.s, jets, jets, jets. no flashy explosions to bring it down to close to the new one across the parking lot 70 mile yon people passed through the turnstile's during its history. misty croslin as mike told

you, speaking from behind bars, the woman babysitting haleigh cummings when she disappeared. we'll talk about her with the host of "issues" jane velez-mitchell. that's next. don't go anywhere.